The Place We Can Call Home
by Concker5000
Summary: it's been a few months since the chunin exam, and now team seven is on a mission what they don't know is, that now more than ever their lives, their friends and everything they know will be at risk of destruction. official pairings will be SasuHina, NaruSaku, NejiTen
1. Chapter 1

The Place We Can Call Home

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters, this are owned by Masashi Kishimoto **

**Chapter 1: Tears and Tragedy, a place which was once home **

"I'm dying for some ramen, it's like I haven't eaten for weeks" said the cheerful blond "Kakashi sensei how much longer until the next village?"

"shut up Naruto you've been repeating the same phrase over and over, can't you see we're all exhausted from the mission?" replied the very annoyed pink haired kunoichi

"well let's see we've been two days on the road since we left the waterfall village for the mission, so I'd say another day, we'll probably be there by noon I suppose" continued the silver haired jounin

"Damn how boring, if that bastard hadn't interfered with my battle we could have finished the mission sooner" said once more the blond known as Naruto "don't you think Sakura-chan?"

"Hmph, idiot I 'intervened' because you thought you could handle more than what your puny body could endure, that aside It was in fact my battle you joined in, rather you should thank me I got out of my way to help you loser" replied the raven haired kid on his side

"What did you say bastard? I could kick your ass right here if you want to see how much I can handle, bring it on Sasuke." Continued a very fuming blond

"Now, now, calm down you two, there's an inn where we can rest the night about five minutes from here, do you think you can remain calm ti'll then kids?"

No body answered but for the next five minutes the only thing that could be heard among the group known as team 7 was a not so loud blond singing 'ramen, ramen, ramen how I miss you'

As they reached the inn kakashi ordered some rooms and asked for a meal before going to sleep and so they found themselves in the dining room. the four of them waiting until they had the chance to start eating and going to sleep because tomorrow would be the day they would arrive at konoha and all of them had already plans for once they get there.

In the left side of a rectangular table seated Naruto with his abnormally big stomach was already sulking for the lack of food, at his side was a very annoyed Uchiha whose only thought was 'stupid idiot would you shut up already' and on the other side of the table was the most mature person of the group Kakashi hatake reading his not so educational book make out paradise, completely focused on it, for he didn't notice the girl beside him leaning towards him trying to read the contents of the book

"Here you go guys, sorry for the waiting" apologized the owner of the inn

"it's not a problem thank you for your attention" continued the silver haired jounin

"Thank you very much I thought I was dying of starvation" said the blond as he reached to a piece of pork to put it in his mouth

"Thank you for the food" said the raven haired boy as he closed his eyes and started chewing a rice ball

They ate with a light conversation and some loud comments in between from the cheerful blond

As Sakura and Naruto left to their rooms Sasuke stayed behind prepared to ask some questions to his sensei

"hm?, what's up Sasuke, I thought you would want to get some sleep before we head out once more to the village" said the jounin sensei

For a while there was silence, and kakashi was already convinced this was going to be an important conversation

"Can I really become stronger, training with you in the leaf?" asked a very confused Uchiha

"is this about orochimaru, Sasuke?" asked a the jounin with a calmed voice though he was still in shock for the question, for what he could imply, Sasuke was considering abandoning the leaf in his search for power

"Last time in the chunin exams, and again when itachi came back, I was useless, I couldn't do anything, and because of that Sakura and Naruto almost died, I'm starting to believe that if I stay here I'll never be strong enough to take itachi down" continued a very frustrated raven

"Sasuke, orochimaru and itachi both have had years of training longer than you, even I was powerless against them, you might want to believe that training with orochimaru will give you more power to defeat itachi, but do you really want to defeat itachi that way?, as far as I knew I thought you wanted to restore the honor of your clan, and punish itachi for his crimes against the uchiha"

"then tell me Kakashi sensei how can I make myself stronger than them, as time passes I feel as though my progress is only a dim of what it should be, and naruto's has been…" said the raven

"Dramatic?" replied the jounin

"Yes" said flatly the raven

"And why do you think this is, what do you think is the key for naruto to achieve true strength" said the jounin

"I…don't know" replied a frustrated raven

"That he doesn't give up and that he has something he wants to protect, do you know what that is Sasuke?" continued the jounin

"No" said the raven as he looked away with a thoughtful gaze

"He wants to protect us to protect you and sakura and even me" said the silver "that is how you achieve true strength; you have already experience it, remember?"

"Yes" said the raven as he stood up "thank you kakashi"

"Good night sasuke" finished the silver haired jounin as he returned to his book

The raven answered with a nod and went to the bedroom he shared with the blond, as he entered he looked at him and with a smirk no one saw got to his bed remembering the experiences he shared with his blond best friend

Morning soon came, it was already seven o'clock and they were already leaving the inn as they followed their path, they couldn't help but notice the smell, like fire, once they identified the smell in a matter of seconds, they quickened their pace to the village

What they finally saw was something they would never forget in their lives

The gates of the village were open and a few meters forward were the corpses of the gatekeepers izumo and kotetsu lying in the floor with pools of blood around their bodies

As they got closer to the gates they were slowly but surely freezing in their steps at the sight they were witnessing, buildings, houses, trees, posts, everything was destroyed but what they couldn't handle to see was the corpses of civilians and their fellow shinobi scattered in the floor, some were even unrecognizable for the amount of their injuries in their faces, others were without limbs or even separated in half, it was a true massacre one that, they wouldn't wish for anyone to see not even the people they hated the most.

The first one to recover from the shock was kakashi who even though was feeling his body numb decided to say

"Go look for survivors, if you see any threat don't engage in battle alone, try to get as much information as possible, if you find something of importance request for the rest to regroup" he said as if he was in autopilot

The others even though still in trance decided to follow suit.

Naruto was running down the central district of konoha, as he looked for any sign of movement as he continued he noticed a rundown building in his left he clearly recognized as ichiraku ramen bar, however the place was destroyed in half the banners that hung in the ceiling were in the ground, and naruto was able to identify a hand that stood out between the rubble, it was old teuchi's hand, the hand that so many times served him bowls of ramen even when he was disliked by all of the villagers, he like iruka sensei was one of the few who had accepted him as he was.

For a moment he only observed as a wave of pain invaded his heart, he started the heat in his cheeks, and his sight was getting blurred.

He decided to continue down the path that lead to the academy, if anyone was there even a single child it'd be worth it.

As he entered he wish he hadn't, for he now was seeing corpses of little children who were caught in the battlefield. He couldn't handle it much longer, he left the academy and threw himself to the ground, as he kneeled in the ground the only thing he could think was, 'why, why did this happen' he couldn't think straight anymore, he decided he would try to calm down and get to sasuke, he wouldn't be able to handle it otherwise

Sakura was walking through the east side of the village, where the hospital and many civilian houses were located, every single building was turned to rubble, and she was feeling as if her world had been brought down , she was walking down the streets of the village and every step she gave, was agonizing to her heart, she saw women children, people who she used to greet every day, dead, that was it, she leaned to a wall, as she cried she couldn't hide her emotions, as a shinobi should, she knew so yet as she stood there leaning against rubble she only tightened her hands into fists and kept them close to her heart, crying, sobbing, wincing every now and then, her mind stopped working and all she could do was cry and cry again.

Sasuke decided to go for the west side of the village where some of the most renown clans of the village aside from his own resided, he was only able to advance a few steps before stopping abruptly, it occurred all over again, bodies of women and children scattered around the floor, blood everywhere, kunai, and shuriken embedded in the walls, last time it was his clan, this time it was his village, the wound he had tried to close long ago opened once more, as a delicate stream of water was flowing through his eyes, and he stood there watching as he once more failed to protect, something he cherished, and this time he didn't have a clue of what caused it.

As soon as the others left kakashi stood there in horror as more bodies could be seen from afar, he couldn't keep his promise to obito, he couldn't save rin, he couldn't protect the third hokage, at this very moment kakashi hatake felt, completely worthless, weak, he could feel the helplessness running through him, he let himself fall on his knees, as his only visible eye started secreting the tears of guilt, pain he was feeling, kakashi hatake couldn't protect his home, nor the lives of his now closest friends, a list of names quickly got to his mind 'kurenai, asuma, anko, genma, raido, shizune, shikaku, inoichi, choza….guy' he couldn't even though he was a shinobi, he couldn't not even with all his might, keep from crying in this situation, and so he cried, and cried with a word of apology in his throat he know he wouldn't be able to say

"sasuke.."Said the blond as he found him staring at nothing in particular with his back against him

"Naruto" he noted the shaky voice of the blond but he didn't dare to face him now, not in his second most vulnerable moment

"I think we should head to the hokage tower, we might get a clue of what happened" continued naruto as he turned while clenched his fists, of course he noticed the shaky voice sasuke gave as well he knew how much pain conveyed with that single with that single word

"No, kakashi asked us to look for survivors, it's best if we go to the tunnels in the mount hokage, there might be someone there" replied the raven as he followed his path with his eyes closed 'damn, damn' was all his mind could handle for now, there was no imminent threat so there only was time for grieve and pain

A few minutes passed as naruto requested regroup from the others which arrived at his side in no later than minutes.

Once again team seven found themselves with something they would want to omit had they had the chance

In the floor not far from there lied the hokage tsunade senju with a pool of blood underneath her body all around her lied the corpses of an anbu squad with the mission of protecting the hokage, but what called their attention the most was the last body opposite from the others around fifteen meters away from them was orochimaru, the snake who almost destroyed the leaf the last time in the chunin exams, the man who was once a teammate of jiraiya and tsunade in a three man squad.

"Why is he here" snarled the blond " Is he the one who did this ?" continued as his eyes turned red"

"calm down Naruto, we have to assess calmly the situation and the circumstances, otherwise any conclusion we reach could be wrong" said the raven

Naruto was about to protest when he got to see his teammate, he was paler than usual, and his sharingan was activated he was clenching his fists tightly, he was clearly upset for all of this so the blond just tried to keep his mouth shut as they talked

As kakashi looked from his students to the scene he was preparing a theory as he noted every single thing that was out of place that's when he realized

"That body over there, orochimaru, it's just a human carcass"

Sasuke and sakura stood petrified knowing full well what this meant

"What do you mean kakashi sensei?" asked a curious yet angry blond

"From the way I see things, orochimaru might just be alive" replied the silver jounin

Naruto stood in his tracks as he mimicked sasuke and sakura from a moment before, this couldn't be, If that bastard was the one who destroyed the village then he might be around and looking for sasuke, his train of thought stopped as sakura spoke as if reading his mind

"Then we've got to leave, if that guy is still around here, he must be looking for sasuke-kun right? We should leave as soon as we can"

"No" replied the raven "when he gave me this" he said as he touched his neck "he also gave me the ability to sense him, and to somewhat track his movements, that's how he planned to take me away, not by force, or rather not by physical pressure but rather by psychological pressure, if he's alive he's not here" finished the raven a little more calmed down than before

"That's good to know, the best plan of action for now is to find a save zone in which we can recover from all of this, and in the next following days we'll have to try to find survivors using another method"

"What do you mean kakashi sensei?" asked sakura looking a little hopeful

"As I scouted the borders of the village and the outside of the walls, I couldn't feel any trace of chakra, which means that everyone inside the village besides us is dead" he concluded as he looked away

The genin beside him suddenly became rigid, each of them thinking different things naruto 'iruka sensei, konohamaru, udon, moegi, shikamaru, choji, ino, hinata, lee, everyone, I'm…I'm so sorry' was thinking as he once again broke into crying.

Sakura's thoughts were 'mom, dad, you can't, you can't leave me please, please, I…I'

And the only thing sasuke could thing now was 'I falied, dad, mom, I'm a disgrace to the uchiha, I wasn't able to protect our home, I'm sorry'

"The other method" continued kakashi grabbing the attention of the genin at his side "is to determine how many and which shinobi were outside of the village when this happened"

"it makes sense" continued sasuke escaping his other thoughts "after all we ourselves were outside the village, perhaps there are indeed more that escape this fate"

"And how will we find them?" said naruto joining the conversation

"You leave that to me" replied the silver jounin

"Alright, what do we do until then?" asked the raven

"for now we should get some rest, we've been through too much" said the jounin "we should set a base of operations, and work from there, tomorrow morning we'll start planning our next moves, for what I can see, this isn't over"

"What do you mean this isn't over sensei?" asked an irritated pink haired girl

"Sakura, it's best if we trust kakashi on this, there are many unanswered questions, and we need information, but to work effectively we must be as calm as possible, and as we are right now, we aren't going to get much"

"Ok, I got it but where will we stay, everything's in ruins and we might be risking ourselves to be found by the enemy so tell do you have any place in mind?" asked the blond shinobi

"Wow Naruto I never thought you would be speaking logically to evaluate and solve a problem" noted the pink haired girl

"I don't have the luxury to be relaxed now, I'm not going to let anything happen to you alright?" continued the blond with a soft voice which made sakura blush

"About what you asked earlier, I think we can use the tunnels behind the mount hokage, they are still functional from what I saw before, there if an enemy shows we'll be able to pinpoint its location much simpler, and if any shinobi that were out on a mission find the village like it is now, they are bound to look for survivors there, I believe It's our best choice for now" explained the raven

"I agree, very well we'll stay there for the night, I'll think of something before briefing tomorrow morning, if you sense anything or see anyone you must report before engaging, if you are spotted request a formation regroup" continued the sensei " alright let's go "

They moved from the ruins of the tower hokage towards the tunnels, when they finally arrived the three genin were gone to sleep, knowing they'd have a hard day tomorrow.

Kakashi sat in the entrance of the tunnel, making guard and assimilating everything that had happened since just this morning

A noise in the tunnel behind kakashi could be heard, but he did not turn back he already knew who it was, though he was curious what he would say at this point.

"kakashi sensei" spoke the blond ninja "I'm sorry I just…needed to talk, I can't believe this is actually true, my dreams, my hopes and everything I was fighting for is worthless now, I let the people whom I wanted to be acknowledge by die just like that, as a ninja of the leaf, I didn't do anything, I was walking down the main road to the hokage tower, and I found teuchi under all that mass of rocks, I saw a little girl who looked to be only five, with her eyes open, they were blank, dead, I couldn't see the light that should've been there, I failed them sensei, I couldn't protect my home, my friends, what else can I do now I feel so weak"

"it's not just you Naruto, I too am a shinobi of the leaf and I wasn't strong enough to do anything about it, I wasn't smart enough to prevent it, so don't beat yourself about It, now the only thing we can do is to fix this and reveal the person that did this" said kakashi with a lower darker voice, a voice that said I'll do it even if have to die in the end

As naruto turned to leave kakashi spoke again " oh, and naruto" the blond turned to him "you still have someone to fight for, after all we are still a family aren't we?, team 7"

"Yes kakashi sensei" said the blond with a caring tone "thank you"


	2. Chapter 2

The Place We Can Call Home

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters, they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto**

**Chapter 2: A dim light in the overwhelming darkness **

Morning soon came, and Sasuke found himself staring at the ceiling, he had just awaken a few seconds ago, but he still couldn't get the images he witnessed the previous day out of his mind, images that became nightmares of his few hours of rest, he realized at that moment that he was crying, he could still feel the warm in his cheeks, the feelings he thought were buried deep down in his heart arose like roaring flames, he hadn't felt like this since the night of the massacre, for some reason he felt very connected to the village, this pain he knew it all too well, the pain of losing someone important to you.

He turned to his left where he saw that Naruto was not there anymore, he got up and left to meet the others.

"Listen carefully, these are your orders, you are to collect the bodies of the civilians and fellow shinobi and identify them, I want a list of names of all shinobi you find, you don't have to count the casualties. But want you to collect them, we are going to give them a proper burial." Said the silver haired sensei "thank you for joining us sasuke, I assume you heard everything?" continued the jounin startling the other two genin

"Yes I did" replied the raven shinobi

"sasuke-kun are you alright?" asked the pink haired girl

"We should get going I'm sure kakashi has something important to do" continued the raven dismissing the kunoichi and leaving the team

"But sasuke-kun" said the kunoichi as she prepared to follow

"Leave him be sakura, he just needs time, he'll come around" interrupted the jounin

"tch, that bastard I know this is something hard but he…" snarled the blond as he left as well

"Get going sakura, we do have to do this as fast as possible, this is not a safe place to be hanging around" said the jounin

"Yes sensei" replied the girl shinobi "I'm sorry"

"don't be, you are just worried about your friend, and I'm proud of you for that, the truth is, how things are going we are going there is no telling what kind of obstacles we are going to have to face, and the only way we are going to get through them is if we are there for each other when the time comes, now go, I have something else to take care of."

In another part of the village

"What the hell is wrong with you sasuke, why do you ignore her like that" said the blond as he approached his best friend

They had just left the tunnels and were now walking around the village

"It's none of your business, now leave me alone" said the raven

"What?" snarled the blond with fury in his voice "she is just worried about you, bastard, do you know how much you are hurting her?"

"Shut up idiot, haven't you notice the situation we're in, we don't the luxury to be thinking about how each of us are feeling, for all we know someone who is still alive is out there targeting leaf ninja, do you know how dangerous our position is right now?, you better worry about her safety, instead of how she feels" replied an angry raven

"That doesn't mean you have to treat her like a pest" continued the blond

"we need her to focus, and you too Naruto, we'll have time for this later" finished the raven as he turned to leave

Then both of them noticed in the nick of time to evade shuriken that were thrown at them

'The enemy' they thought

Sharingan and nine-tails chakra activated

"fire style: fire ball jutsu" roared the raven as he did the hand signs to activate the jutsu

Soon a giant ball of fire made impact with some of the buildings where the targets were hiding

Naruto and sasuke shared a look, both preparing for the next attack

The bestial instinct of the blond ninja allowed him to evade a swarm of insects that was directed towards him, 'insects?' he thought

"shadow clon jutsu" screamed the blond ninja as replicas of himself appeared in the battlefield with enhanced chakra the clones headed to the place where the swarm was sent from as they approached its target two masses of the size of a human each clashed with the clones, eliminating them with a poof, once more the blond and the raven shared a look as they charged to the targets.

Kunai in hand team seven shinobi approached the target, with the intention of killing or capturing the bastards that did this to their homes

A high pitched sound was heard in the place, indicating the contact of the kunai as they parried

It was then that they noticed who they were fighting against

"kiba?" asked a dumbfounded blond

"Aburame" acknowledged the surprised raven

"Naruto it's you isn't it thank god I thought it was the bastard who did this" replied a shocked boy with pain in his face recognized as kiba inuzuka

"Sasuke" greeted the guy with shades

"damn it's good to see you guys we were afraid of being the only ones who survived this, see sasuke this means there might be others" continued the blond now relieved

"yes, is your whole team secured?" asked the raven as he turned from his blond friend to the newcomers

"Indeed, we were conducting a mission in the land of roots, we just arrived this morning and separated to look for survivors, that was when we found you" responded the guy known as shino aburame

"the overwhelming scent of blood prevented me from recognizing you guys, that's why I thought you were the enemy" apologized the dog boy

"Naruto, Sasuke, what happened?" asked a worried kakashi as he arrived to the site along with sakura

"Sensei you were right, we have confirmed the safe status of team 8" replied sasuke before anyone had the chance to speak.

They were soon followed by kurenai and Hinata they arrived to the side of their team

"kiba, Shino, are you alright?" inquired a very shocked kurenai

"Naruto-kun" observed a very relieved hinata as some tears escaped her eyelids "thank god"

"Hinata, kurenai sensei, I'm so glad you're fine" continued a very moved blond

"Do you know of anyone who was on a mission when this happened" asked the silver jounin to his fellow captain

"Yes…Asuma left with his team a little before us, they should be getting close as we speak" responded a now serious kurenai

"very well, everyone listen carefully, as of yet we do not know who the identity of the one who orchestrated this, however my team found what it seems to be a carcass of the s-class criminal orochimaru" explained the silver jounin, surprising the newly arrived team 8

"We've determined the status of the hokage tsunade as deceased" continued kakashi, further startling the still shocked newcomers "the only confirmed survivors of this event are all standing right here."

"w-hat?" asked a horrified kiba

"No, t-hat's n-ot possible" remarked the now perplexed hyuga "my clan, my dad, brother neji, they… they are really strong, you can't be serious" as a small tear flew down her cheeks

"I inspected the hyuga grounds, as well as the other big clans of konoha, I even used my sharingan to make sure I didn't miss anything" replied the uchiha "I'm… I'm sorry"

He looked away when hinata fell on her knees as she started crying silently, like a broken doll; her eyes betrayed nothing but the empty abyss in her heart, she had already lost her mother, now she lost everything. Pain that was the only thing her mind recognized for the moment, her vision now blurred started to fade, the last thing she saw, were dark pearls, that held the same pain, and sorrow the her own white pearls conveyed

"Hinata, Hinata, are you alright?" asked the female jounin as she held her student, now realizing that she had fainted

"-sigh- this is not good" continued kakashi "kiba, shino I want you to work with team 7 on recovering the bodies, and if possible identify them, I also want a list of every shinobi that has become a casualty, we'll be burying them soon; kurenai take hinata to the escape tunnels in behind the hokage mountain and then meet me at the gate, sakura you'll stay with hinata until she wakes up, try to explain the situation as delicately as possible, we need her calm for this, when you're done, meet the boys and help with the bodies" ordered the silver jounin "sasuke if for any reason you finish before we are back, I want you to send a signal, is that clear"

"Yes" said the raven

"alright, good luck" said the silver as he kurenai and sakura left

"shino, you and naruto go bring the bodies to the village graveyard, kiba and I will dig up the graves, there is still much space left there and we can try to identify the bodies as we leave them in the holes" said the raven genin

There was still no response from the others, who were clearly processing all the information they've heard

"Alright" said shino as he leaned to look at the sky through his shades "let's go Naruto"

"Yeah… sure" replied a still confused blond

And then they were gone, without another word the other two left towards the graveyard

It was now evening, and a young hyuga was just waking up in a room inside the tunnels.

"Hinata, are you ok?" asked a worried sakura

"Yes… I'm fine" replied the hyuga with an apathetic tone "where are the others"

"kakashi sensei sent them to bury the corpses, he said for us to follow once you had woken up" responded the pink kunoichi

They sat there in silence both in their own thoughts until the hyuga heiress broke it with a question

"Then what are we waiting for?" asked the hyuga

No response came from the pink haired kunoichi

"Are you alright sakura?" asked a concerned hinata

"Can we stay here a little longer?" pleaded the rosy ninja "just a little longer"

"Sakura, what's wrong?" asked once more the heiress as she approached the other girl

"I'm…I'm really scared hinata" replied the pink girl "I don't know if my parents were here when this happened, I'm scared to go out and find them in the ground just like the others, I don't want to lose them, I love them, i'm so scared I don't know how much I can take of this" continued as she broke in crying

"it's alright sakura, i'm scared too" said the hyuga as she embraced the other girl

Sakura returned the hug, as they both laid there crying until they had no more tears to shed

It was getting darker and colder by the hour, yet they were still digging up graves for the deceased; neither sasuke nor kiba had any word to speak, for they knew no matter what they said things wouldn't go back to like it was before, there were no words to ease the pain, so they just stood there in silence while they dug

They heard footsteps approaching them, but they did not look up, for they knew it was their blond friend who had brought another body to bury

The silence was broken by sasuke who had a request for the blond before he went out looking for the rest of the people they would have to put into graves.

"Naruto, if you see sakura or hinata, tell them to come here they'll help to dig the graves instead of having to see the bodies"

"Sure, alright" replied with a soft voice and a small smile that didn't reach his eyes

As the blond followed his path he noticed the two young kunoichis approaching him

"hey, sakura, hinata, sasuke wants you to go that way and meet them, he thinks it's best if you help dig graves rather than handle you know" said the blond with the same tone as before

"Naruto-kun…." The hyuga replied softly

"If you don't mind Naruto I want you to come with me, please?" asked a very spaced out pink haired girl

"Alright" said the blond as they left in another direction around the village

They walked slowly and silently each of them too immersed in their own worlds to say a word that is until she saw them

She froze in her place, this was it, not far from there once stood her house, and her parents laid limbless in the street, 'dad, mom' was all she thought as she started shaking, she couldn't handle it, not any more, not when she saw the person she loved the most like this, her legs stopped working, her hands stretched toward them on a desperate intent to held them, in the floor red, it was all she could see blood, the blood of the people who brought her to this world, the people who she loved with every ounce of her being, no she couldn't handle it any more

"NOOOOOOOOO!" sakura screamed with all her might, this couldn't be happening "MMOOOOM" she continued as she embraced herself she couldn't stop shaking "mom, please, don't leave me, please… please" her hope, her light, her mother was no more

A strong pair of arms, surrounded her

"It's alright sakura-chan, I'm here for you, no matter what" the blond ninja said softy

And they stayed there in silence between sobbing and whimper until there was only silence, and then left to finish the task that was commended to them

in the other side of the village more specifically in the cemetery stood three people digging

"Noooooooooo!" a scream was heard from the far end of the village

"sakura-san" whispered the hyuga as she recognized the voice

"I'm going to bring the hyuga now, stay here" said sasuke

"Wait sasuke-san, let me go with you" pleaded the young heiress

"No, believe me, it's best if you don't see them" responded the raven as he turned to leave

"What the hell man, it's her family, if she wants to go see them, you don't have the right to tell her otherwise" interrupted kiba as he positioned himself between sasuke and hinata

"you think you have any idea of what it feels like to see your parents, your family mutilated, and desecrated like animals that just went through the slaughter?" snarled the raven as he caught kiba by his collar "the mere knowledge of their deaths almost destroyed you, how could you possibly believe that seeing them right now is a better option"

"believe me, I wouldn't be telling you this on a whim, if you go, you will get hurt like never before, and that pain I assure you will never leave your heart" concluded the raven as he let go of kiba and resumed his path towards the hyuga compound

It was close to midnight now, they had buried most of the bodies and now sasuke, kiba, shino, hinata, and sakura were waiting for naruto and his clones to bring the last round of bodies.

A young blond walked slowly towards his friends, he was carrying someone with him, he held him tightly, and as he got closer he let himself fall on his knees in front of the next grave. He started shaking as he continued to held the body tightly, he already knew he was crying, but he couldn't help it, he just simply wasn't ready for this. He recalled the memories he shared with this person over and over, the relationship they shared was the first of this kind for him

"Naruto" said kiba as he approached the blond

"it's not fair, it's not fair" he replied "he was just a kid, he was innocent, why?... why?"

"You were going to fight me for the place of hokage remember, you weren't supposed to die, not you" continued the blond " you promised" he said as pools of water flowed through his eyes

"God what happened here, is everyone alright" asked a newly arrived asuma as he and his team approached the other genin "Naruto, who is-"

"KONOHAMARU" screamed the blond "konohamaru, konohamaru, I'm so sorry" he said "I should have been here, i'm sorry, forgive me, forgive me, please"

"Naruto" the silver jounin called with a firm tone as he approached the others with another team following behind

It was then that he noticed asuma, he had let go of his cigar, and the lighter he had in his hand was now on the ground, for him, the world had stopped in that second, his nephew konohamaru rested in naruto's arms with a would on his chest that looked like claws, his blood was already coagulated and his face was pale as a ghost

He knew now, things wouldn't be as they were before

"konohamaru…." Whispered the blond to himself

In all the commotion the others didn't notice the group that came after kakashi until he spoke

"The loss of a young life is always hard to accept, and is even more hard to bear" guy spoke softly

"Brother neji" exclaimed a shocked hinata

"Lady Hinata, thank god you are safe" responded the other hyuga as he embraced hinata "if anything had happened to you, I wouldn't be able to face neither yours nor my father in the next life"

"sakura" ino ran towards her best friend as they both shared a hug

"I can't believe this really happened" said the Nara

"Naruto, it's time to bury him and the others we don't have much time to waste" the silver haired ninja spoke

"Yeah… alright" said the blond even though he was still feeling numb

As they finished burying the bodies, kakashi assembled the rest of the survivors to explain their next move

"I already explained the events after we arrived yesterday to team 8 and team guy" said the silver jounin "we will leave as soon as everyone has packed and said their good byes, I have reason to believe this is not yet over" he continued leaving everyone startled

"Guys" the silver jounin spoke again "from here on, you are the legacy of konoha, and I swear to all of you that what happened here won't go without a pay" – "now go, pack we'll meet in the gates shortly, don't use up too much time"

And when he was done everyone went on different directions

It was a little past twelve, and it was raining, a young blond Naruto stood near a newly dug grave "Hi, Iruka sense, I wanted to tell you this before I left, the truth is… that I owe everything to you sensei, you were the first person to ever acknowledge me, you were the reason that I was able to keep fighting the cold glares of the villagers. The first time you treated me for ramen, I was so happy I thought It wasn't real, nothing in my life was happiness until that day sensei, I finally felt like I mattered to someone, I finally felt like someone cared about me, I always wondered if being with you was like having a father, someone who scolded me when I did things wrong, someone who praised me when I accomplished something, someone who guided me when I was confused, I owe all of that to you iruka sensei, I failed to protect the village, I failed to protect konohamaru, I failed to protect you sensei, but I promise you right now, I will find the one who did this and I'll stop him from doing it ever again, I will rebuild the village and I will become hokage, I swear, and I never go back on my word, because that is my nindo you hear me sensei, that is my ninja way.

Not too far from there laid on her knees was a pink haired girl in front of another grave, she had just put some flowers to show her respect and her love towards them "I always thought that living with your parents was bothersome, because they didn't respect your privacy, or because they made you do things you didn't want to, I thought it would be fun to be like Naruto who had no one scolding him for little things, and could have fun whenever he wanted. I never realized how much of an idiot I really was, to have such amazing parents that cared about me, you supported me in my dream of becoming a ninja, even though you both were scared of what could happen to me during missions, you both gave me resources and education, and most importantly, gave me love and comfort, I wish I'd had the chance to thank you for that, thanks to you I never felt lonely, thanks to you I decided to follow my dreams, thanks to you I made wonderful friends who would give their life for me, I'm sorry mom, I'm sorry dad, I love you both so much, I promise, I will get stronger, and this will never happen again

In another darker part of the village stood a young man with raven hair in front of dozens of graves, the graves of his parents, the graves of his clan, the ones that brought voices from the past, and the ones that awaken the nightmares of his heart

"hey mom, dad, it's been a while hasn't it" spoke the raven "it happened again, and again I was powerless, the uchiha are the fan that extend the fire of the passion to protect our home wasn't it dad, I suppose I disappointed you like so many other times, I keep trying, and trying all over but it seems like it doesn't work, that no matter how much I train I will never catch up to him, that I will never be able to restore the honor of our clan, it's so frustrating, no matter how many techniques I learn, no matter how time I spend, I end up always so weak and useless; not too long ago I almost lost one of my best friends and I tried will all I got to save her but it wasn't enough I was useless yet again, after that not too later he showed up, he was looking for my best friend Naruto, he was going to take him away too, and so I defied him, he once again defeated me like I was nothing, why is it that I can never protect what I cherish mom, why couldn't I protect you and dad, if only I had been stronger, I'm so sorry, It seems at the end of the day I am once again only capable of crying my eyes out, hoping that you will return and tell me that this is just a bad dream, I miss you so much" said sasuke as he let himself cry over his parents graves "keep watching me from afar mother, father, I promise I won't give up, not now, not ever, I will restore the honor of our clan, and I will protect the people I cherish"\

In konoha cemetery was a little hinata kneeling in front her sister's grave "hey, hanabi…. I came here to see you before I left, because I'll probably never be back, I wanted to tell you how much you mean to me sister, from the moment you were born I felt blessed for having you with me, even though father made us fight most of the time, I still looked at you as my dear little sister, you don't know how many times I wanted to go talk to you and spend the day for ourselves, how many times I wanted to invite you to a meal of my making, how many times I imagined us sharing and bonding like a real family, but you were everything I was not, strong, confident, beautiful, smart, and that's why dad decided to keep you away from me, perhaps that might've been the best choice, or perhaps not, but I wanted you to know that I was always proud of being your sister, I wish you were the one who survived this, you had so much talent, and dad was so proud of you, I'm sorry sister, I love you , you don't have any idea how much, and it hurts so much, knowing that you are not with me anymore, I hope you are in a better place sister, goodbye"

A boy and his dog were standing in front of a grave; they knew all too well who it was that was buried there, yet the words wouldn't come out as easily as they'd want to, however the boy decided to speak "hey hana what's up" said a very teary kiba "you really did screw up big time didn't you idiot, you should have called me, but no you always want to do everything out of the pack, I bet you fought earlier than mom, you're so stupid sis" continued the dog boy as he started shaking "you always were underestimating me and picking on me, you should have called me you big idiot, this was not how it was supposed to end for you, and I…I never got the chance to tell you how awesome you are sis, really you're the coolest sis ever you know that?, and I'm going to miss you, yeah yeah, you can laugh at me all you want when we see each other again, but for now I just… I just wanted to tell you I love you sis, I'll get the bastard who did this and I'm gonna give him a run for his money, you'll see" said kiba while clenching his fists "we'll smell you later hana"

Shino, neji, lee, shikamaru, and tenten decided only to wait for the rest as they kept quiet in sign of respect

Choji and ino cried all over the graves of their parents, thanking them for everything and vowing to follow their teachings.

Asuma stayed in front of a grave, the biggest one around with a flame immortalized as the grave of the third hokage "-sigh- hey old man, I came to apologize, you were right, I was only a brat who knew nothing of compromise, and dedication, i couldn't protect the king, and I'm sorry, I don't know what else to say, because no matter what I say, it won't make me feel better, anyway, I wanted to thank you old man even if it's just us now I know they carry inside them the unbreakable will of fire that will rebuild this village and protect all its people once more."

Everyone soon met at the gates to start their journey

"Um sasuke-san?" called the shy hyuga

"Yes" replied the raven

"Uh, thank you, you know for earlier, you were right, I probably would have felt much worse If I had seen.." continued the hyuga

"You're welcome" concluded the raven

"alright everyone" started kakashi "the enemy we are facing was strong enough to wipe out the entire village in less than two days, in order to win, we must first turn you into full-fledged ninja, now more missions, no more games, this time it's hardcore training"


	3. Chapter 3

The Place We Can Call Home

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters, they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto **

**Chapter 3: Son of legends, training begins **

"Let's go, there's something I have to say before we start training, well spend the night in the forest, and in the morning you'll assemble and wait for further instructions" said kakashi as he started jumping through tree branches, soon everyone followed.

Asuma, kurenai, and guy decided to catch up to kakashi, they needed answers and this was the time to get them

"What do you mean this isn't over, what did you find kakashi?" asked a perturbed kurenai

"When I said, we were the only survivors I was telling the truth, however we were not the only ones who were out on missions at this moment" said kakashi surprising the others

"How do you know that?" asked this time asuma

"when the kids were digging the graves, I went through the wreckage of the hokage tower, and I found what I was looking for, there was a scroll where lady tsunade kept records of the teams she dispatched on missions, when I looked inside it clearly stated that there were four other squads outside the village, each was marked as missing, they didn't report back to the hokage" explained the silver jounin

"maybe they just took longer to complete their missions" added guy

Kakashi shook his head "in the scroll it also mentions the category and the location of the mission they were assigned, even if they had wanted to take a long break they should've had arrived at the village before we did, yet we didn't found any bodies of any shinobi from this squads." Continued the silver

"Then what you're saying is" said asuma

"Yes, the one or ones who did this, meant to annihilate every single leaf shinobi" concluded kakashi "and they haven't finish what they started, they'll come looking for us eventually, with only us jounin, we don't stand a chance against them; no, we have to take those kids and turn them into the most capable and powerful ninjas they can be"

"I see, you're right, do you have anything planned for their training?" asked once again kurenai

"yes, but I'm afraid I need to ask you to be much more strict than you normally would be, and I have already an idea of what I need from each of you" replied kakashi "Kurenai, I want you to take care of sakura and ino, you'll teach them genjutsu exclusively to them is that clear? I also want kiba and shino with you, they have their own styles so I'll be harder for us to teach them that's why I want you to help them, after all you know them better than anyone here"

"Alright leave them to me" agreed kurenai

"Asuma I want you to take care of shikamaru and chouji, they too have their own way of fighting but since you know them the better, I want you to teach them, and I want you to be much more strict than usual, shikamaru is an exelent strategist, but his physical condition leaves much to be desired, and choji, needs to work on his stamina"

"You have a keen eye as always kakashi, you can count on me"

"guy you'll be the one with the most work, I want you to take care of Lee, Naruto, Neji, and tenten, you'll teach them only taijutsu, I'm sure Naruto will appreciate a good workout, you don't have to worry about hinata, I'll teach her an Naruto ninjutsu myself"

"And I suppose you'll train sasuke yourself too" added asuma

"Yes I will, after all he's like me, I can teach him better than anyone else" continued kakashi "when we are all together I'll explain the rest of the details, alright"

"Sure" agreed the other jounin

They soon stopped in their tracks as everyone gathered expecting the words that would come out of their jounin captain kakashi, they were surrounded by trees, not far from there a clearing could be seen, now they sat around as they waited for what any information the jounin ninja would give them

"I have confirmed what we were afraid of, they were targeting leaf shinobi, as I said earlier this isn't over" spoke the silver "before we left I took the liberty of collecting the scrolls that contain the special techniques of your clans, these scrolls are a memento of your families, with them you'll truly become stronger, and you will preserve the secrets of your families for yourselves"

"The scrolls of our clans?" asked shikamaru "that means every single technique our clan has kept hidden from the rest of the world, and even from ourselves, that is a great responsibility"

"I know, but this is what your parents, wanted you to inherit" continued kakashi as naruto looked away "now before I hand these to you there is something I need to say, Naruto" the blond turned to him "I have to tell you, that the you are the son of Minato Namikaze the fourth hokage of the leave village, also known as the yellow flash and Kushina Uzumaki also known as red-hot habanero, this is why I hand to you the scroll of your family, keep it safe" finished the jounin leaving all the genin open mouthed

"I… I don't know what to say, I think I need to be alone for now" said the uzumaki as soon as he was handed the scroll, with a leap he abandoned the rest looking for a place to think, and process everything that has happened until now

"leave him be guys he just needs time, now take these, these are your scrolls, I want you to read them but don't practice anything till tomorrow, I will explain how we will proceed in the morning, sakura, lee, and tenten you stay here I'll explain what you'll be doing during the time the others practice with their scrolls"

Everyone soon started to leave with the exception of the three kakashi just mentioned, when there was no one else he spoke

"sakura, you'll dedicate your full time to study genjutsu and taijutsu with kurenai, you have shown your potential, for this area that's why I asked her to be your teacher"

"Alright sensei" replied the pink girl

"Lee you'll continue with your taijutsu regime under guy, however he'll make you work much more harder than you ever imagined, be prepared"

"As you order sensei" responded the guy in the green jumpsuit

"Tenten guy will continue to be your master; you'll still practice with neji when he isn't training with his scroll"

"Alright Kakashi sensei"

In another part of the forest were to boys sitting beside a tree

"Hey shikamaru, what do you think this all mean, do you really think the enemy is that strong?" asked a preoccupied choji

"for kakashi sensei to be acting that way, I'd bet on it, he won't let us take it easy anymore, and he's right we are still in too much danger just because we're still here, now that the village is no more, they'll focus their strength in finishing us, if we don't take this seriously, we will probably end up dead." Said a lazy shikamaru "man, what a drag"

Not too far from them kiba inuzuka and shino aburame studied their scrolls diligently

"Hey shino do you think even with this we'll become strong enough to take down those bastards?, I mean they took down the whole village, will we really stand a chance?" asked a concerned kiba

"You heard what kakashi sensei said, he seems to have a training plan for us, I don't think we'll only have the scrolls to get stronger, we should follow his instructions, he seems pretty sure of what he's doing" replied the aburame

In the middle of the clearing sitting in the grass were to hyugas reading attentively the scroll

"Are you sure about this lady hinata? I'm still part of the branch family of the hyuga clan those techniques are not mine to learn" said neji with clear confusion in his voice

"brother neji, you and I are both the last survivors of the hyuga clan, it doesn't matter to me If you were branded as a branch member, you are still my family and you still have as much right to learn from it as I do, so don't worry alright brother?" replied Hinata, she waited until neji nodded to start once again inspecting the scroll

A young Naruto laid against a tree far off from the others, he still didn't know how to place the information he was given, for one thing he felt broken for everything that happened in the village, bur for another part he felt happy to know that he had parents and better yet they were the fourth hokage and his wife that gave birth to him, then he started feeling betrayed, by the others who kept this secret from him, and he felt confused about the previous attitude of the now deceased villagers towards him, perhaps they weren't told, perhaps they didn't know, he had no idea how to feel right now, was it right to be happy at a moment like this or should he hate himself for thinking about it after finding the corpses of people important to him

"So the fourth hokage huh, I guess I was beaten" spoke a figure sitting not far from him, startling the blond

"Sasuke, what are you doing here" asked a troubled blond

"Don't tell me you're like this because of what kakashi said" continued the raven ignoring his friend

"No I…"replied the blond but was interrupted once again

"Do you really feel so conflicted about being the son of a very powerful ninja, or is it the title that bothers you?"

"No I just…"

"Tell me what is so bad about being the son of the yellow flash?" asked the raven male

"It's not that sasuke, I just don't know if I have the right to feel happy under this circumstances" snarled the blond "everyone is feeling like crap right now, what right do I have to being the only one who's happy, why shouldn't I feel bad for the people I just lost"

"hmph, pathetic is that everything the number one Hyperactive knucklehead ninja has to say, tell me when did you stop being yourself?" asked a very annoyed raven

"What are you talking about?" asked a confused blond

"where's the Naruto who always keeps fighting for what he believes in, where is the goof idiot who always has a smile on his face" asked the raven as he took him from the collar of his jacket "where is the loud idiot who screamed at me from the bottom of his longs that he would become hokage, tell me where is he?" he said as he shoved him against the tree "because that's not you, all I see is a gloomy loser, drowning on his own pain, too focused on self-pity, tell me" he asked as he punched the blond in the face with his left hand " where did my rival go?" asked a now angry sasuke as he held his best friend by the collar of his jacket once more

"Heh heh, you're right bastard" said naruto as faced his best friend "thanks for reminding me "he continued has he to punched his best friend in the face freeing himself from the grip of the raven

"Naruto Uzukami is right here you hear?" he said as he sent another blow to his best friend, however he stopped as the raven caught his hand

"Good" he replied pulling him closer to perform a throw, the blond sent flying in the other direction landed safely as he recovered his balance

The blond charged towards the raven, intending to hit him, his right arm was blocked by the others left , he then sent a kick towards the raven's face but was once again blocked by his right, the uchiha then took his chance to hit the blond in the chest with his left but was dodged by him instead, by spinning in his legs the raven once again sent a back kick towards the blond only to be dodged once again by the latter, the fight was prolonged as they dodged and blocked each other's blows, with a jump the blond rapidly performed his signature technique

"Shadow clone jutsu" said Naruto as his copies landed surrounding the raven

"hmph, come on" said sasuke as he activated his sharingan

Soon the clones charged at him with impressive speed, trying and failing to hit their target, sasuke dodged and dodged as hi hit the blond's clones that disappeared with a poof, as he avoided a hit to the face from the target in front, he quickly returned a blow in the chest as he sent a back kick to the one in his back, he leaned backwards to avoid a third clone in from his left, and then jumped as he escaped a leg sweep from his right, defeating the two clones simultaneously now back in his position he noticed the shadow in the ground he immediately knew the blond was falling towards him, so he rapidly leapt backwards to escape the impact

"rasengan" screamed the blond as it impacted where the raven once stood,

He quickly formed another clone and prepared the chakra in his hand as it flowed rapidly forming a small blue sphere known as the rasengan

The raven didn't lose time either as he weaved signs for his ultimate technique, a flame of chakra soon covered his left hand turning quickly into a destructive spark with chirping sound

Soon both boys charged at each other with all they had, as they approached the other they thrust their techniques with a single goal in mind 'win'

"Rasengan" yelled the blond as he pushed his sphere forward

"Chidori" roared the raven as he too pushed his spark forward

As they clashed, an incredible shock wave produced by the power of the techniques passed through the forest, pushing the trees against it and forming a crater where the two males stood

The fight stopped when both males were sent in opposite directions where they collided with a tree and a rock, sasuke and naruto they stood up they looked at each other and let themselves smirk and grin to the other recognizing the satisfaction of their fight

They were soon joined by the other who looked perplexed to be seeing the field as it was with craters and destroyed trees

"is everything alright? What the hell were you two doing?" asked a very concerned sakura

"Haha don't worry sakura-chan, I was just wiping the floor with the bastard you know like always" replied the blond

"Hmph you should look at yourself before speaking loser, you were my punching bag since the start of the fight" responded sasuke

"Hah as if bastard, I could kick your ass any day" replied the blond as he showed his fist to his teammate

"Stop talking nonsense, you couldn't beat me even If I were to be on a coma, with my arms tied and my eyes sealed"

"Oh yeah, you wanna fight bastard? I'll beat your ass to a pulp, and then you'll have to look up to me when you realize I'm far stronger, and then sakura-chan will fall in love with me when she realizes you are not that of a big deal" stated the blond with his normal cheerfulness, and immaturity in his voice

"Hmph, bring it on" said the raven as he signaled the blond to attack with his fingers and a smirk

"Narruuutoooo!" exclaimed a very fuming pink haired kunoichi as she knocked the blond to the ground

"sakura-chan why did you hit me so hard" said pained blond

"If you weren't saying such embarrassing things all the time, geez" continued a blushed sakura as she looked away

The hyuga heiress couldn't help herself and started giggling, followed by the blond kunoichi, and a full laughter from tenten

They continued giggling and were soon joined by the rest of the boys, with the exception of shino, neji and shikamaru who only sent a small smile instead.

"Hey that's not funny shut up" said a still blushed sakura

"haha sakura haha you are blushing" replied a very entertained ino

They kept laughting until the jounin spoke

"Well it's getting late everyone prepare your tents, and go to sleep well have a long day tomorrow

And that was all it took for the others to obey

As they lied in their tents everyone was still thinking, on the exception of choji who had already gone to sleep, he was exhausted everyone soon followed and that was the end of their very unnatural day.

It was morning now, around seven when everyone woke up, they left their tents and each other as they waited for the instructions of the silver jounin

He had been out all night as they slept in their tents

When he arrived everyone was surprised to see a calm looking kakashi, with squirrels and fish tied to his back

"good to see everyone's here, I brought breakfast" he said as he took the dead animals off his back and laid them in the floor "I'm going to start making these for you to eat, in the meantime I want you to all start practicing the techniques in your scrolls, kurenai, take sakura and teach her the basics of genjutsu, guy, you take lee and tenten you know what you should do." He continued "Asuma take your team, and see if they need any help; Naruto, Sasuke, do as the others, and I'll get to you later"

Soon everyone left kakashi to his machinations

"Guys, these seem to be kind of difficult techniques for us to handle don't you think?" ino asked his best friends and teammates

"I think so, dad never showed me these kind of techniques before" replied a now saddened choji

"Regardless of the level or difficulty of the technique, we will have to learn them, besides I noticed that, they are not that numerous, which must mean that what's written here are actually principles or rather basic yet secret techniques that with work, with adapt to the user, from what I can see here my shadow possession technique can't be compared to these, I think they made it so we'd be able to keep with our formation ino-shika-cho" explained a very focused shikamaru

Sakura sat not far from there in front of kurenai, as kiba and shino stayed at a fair distance from them as to not distract the rosy kunoichi

"So tell me sakura, what do you know about genjutsu?" asked kurenai

"Genjutsu is the art to manipulate chakra In order to alter or distort the senses of enemy shinobi, these can vary from hallucinations to virtually mind control, am I right sensei?" replied a hopeful sakura

"Just what I expected from kakashi's student, yes you are right, however the theory as I'm sure you know is far simpler than the practice itself"

"I understand sensei" responded sakura

"Good, kakashi tells me you're surprisingly good at chakra control, so let's start with this, Demonic illusion: petal shower" as she showed the hand signs to the young kunoichi

Hyuga Hinata observed not far from them the jounin sensei as she explained the pink girl the technique, she was happy everyone was working so hard for each other, she too had to master the techniques and become strong so she could too, help when the time arrived.

"Lady Hinata, let's practice these exercises, combining them with your eight trigrams protection palms, will help you further improve your flexibility and versatility for combat" explained Neji, as he imagined the best way to help her cousin learn the techniques as fast as possible

"Yes brother Neji" replied an eager Hinata

"That's it lee, don't let anything nor anyone to ruin the power of your youth" exclaimed guy a fair distance from them, as he and lee sparred with amazing speed

"Yes guy sensei, I will become much more stronger, and protect the youth of everyone else" replied lee as he charged at his teacher

Tenten was practicing alone as she leapt and pulled two scrolls pouch in her waist she opened them rapidly as she started rotating and summoning weapons from the scrolls, kunai, shuriken, spears, swords, needles, and many more weapons were falling to the ground embedding themselves with perfect accuracy where the kunoichi had marked the targets

A young Sasuke Uchiha was sitting above a rock not far from where his teammates and peers were training, he was so focused ingesting all the knowledge his scroll contained, that he didn't notice a figure approaching him from his left

"Hey" greeted a cheerful blond sucking him out of his scroll "having any luck with that?"

The raven looked at the blond thoughtful, if he had been on this situation weeks ago, he would have told the blond to get lost, but now that besides him and this little group he had no one else he started thinking that maybe, if he started to trust the blond with his thoughts, maybe he wouldn't be feel so troubled, perhaps It was all that happened before, or perhaps his day was coming closer than he imagined because knew that he was going mad for what he was about to say

"Much of these seem complicated, to tell you the truth I'll take me a while before I learn all of them, but it's nothing I can't handle I guess, what about you?" replied the raven telling himself that it wasn't such a big of a deal and it might actually help

"Wow" answered the stunned blond "I didn't think you'd actually respond to that, but it's good to know, thing is I wanted to show you something." He continued

"Show me something? What do you want Naruto?" asked a confused raven

"Here" the blond said as he handed him his scroll

"What…" continued the raven before he was interrupted

"Open it" the blond said

Sasuke was now very confused but he obeyed nonetheless, he was too curious to send the blond away, so he opened it and waited for the blond to continue

"Read" Said the blond, he was getting tired of this, he didn't think he'd have to guide him every step of the way

"This is… "the raven said as he looked at pool of information in the blond's scroll

"Yes, the flying god technique, the one that gave my father his title" continued the blond

"why are you showing me this?" asked the raven, he was to get what the blond wanted him to do, but no reason came behind it that would make sense

"What else bastard I want you to learn it" replied the blond, confirming the thoughts of the young raven

"Why Naruto, This is your father's technique, why would you give it to me?" asked once more sasuke

"Before this all happened I wanted to get stronger so everyone in the village would acknowledge me, I wanted to become hokage so that people would respect me, I was tired of being invisible to everyone, that's why I became a ninja, when I met you, I knew I had someone I wanted to beat more than anyone else, that's why I made you my rival, that's why I wanted to get stronger than you, so you too would acknowledge me, but now, now this isn't a game between us anymore I'm not striving to defeat you now, I want to stop the ones who destroyed our village, and I know that no matter how strong I get, I alone will never get everything done, that's why I'm giving you this sasuke, if I can make you strong however I can, I know that both together will stand a better chance at defeating the enemy, that and that you are my best friend so I trust you to learn this technique, the one that was my father's" explained the blond as he sent a small smile to his friend

"well that the first reason for doing this, the second reason is that… heheh I want you to teach it to me" he said as he scratched the back of his head

"What?" asked a confused raven once more

"well you see all this reading and complex writhing is a bit too much for me right now, so I want you to learn it and teach it to me, or if you can explain it while we both do it, how does that sound" the blond finished with his characteristic grin

The raven looked at him and then smiled a small genuine smile the blond had never seen before "Thank you Naruto, I'll do as you say, I'll learn it and teach it to you as fast as I can, but that is your technique, your father's technique so I don't want to steal it from you, I'll do as you say, but I will get stronger with my own power my own abilities, I want to help you achieve your goal in my own way" finished the raven with his characteristic smirk

Soon they started reading Naruto's scroll Sasuke was explaining and Naruto was listening attentively, the raven was surprised by the level of concentration the blond was showing, he had thought that it would be much harder than how it was actually going

In front of a small campfire sat kakashi Hatake observing everyone studying their scrolls, he noticed the effort they were putting in learning their clans techniques, perhaps this might actually work, now he had to wait and see, these young children would be protect them all, because if he was not mistaken, things were just about get worse.


	4. Chapter 4

The Place We Can Call Home

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters, they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto.**

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

"_flashback" _

**Chapter 4: Beyond everyone's limits **

"Alright everyone" called kakashi "breakfast's ready, eat up, we have much to discuss"

Everyone stopped at what they were doing and approached the man near the campfire; kakashi gave them the squirrels and fish to everyone and saved a pair for himself, as they ate he noticed the looks of the young children, they were still very much affected for what happened in the village, even Naruto had that lost look in his eyes, who wouldn't they were after all still kids, even he still hadn't got out of that dark place in his heart he knew the pain would never fade but he had to get out of the darkness, for everyone's sake; he had already vow to protect these children, he too would become stronger, he too would go further than what he should, to preserve the life of the legacy of the leaf, he too would preserve the will of fire.

Naruto was eating his share as he caught the faces of his friends, he knew they were still grieving their loss, but like I had said earlier, we don't have the luxury to be moping around, he finished his breakfast as fast as he could and then he spoke

"Alright, everyone, let's give it our all, we're gonna get stronger, we're gonna get the bastards who did that to our village, and we're gonna make everyone proud no matter what" yelled the blond "I'm not going to let their deaths go to waste, I swear on my word, I'll never give up, Kakashi sensei hurry up and start the training already"

Everyone turned to him, they already started to feel better, their loudmouthed friend always knew how to lift their spirits

"Yes, I too want to start training, It's time to show the power of youth" agreed lee

"Yeah, let's do it" said ino

"I guess I have no choice" said a lazy shikamaru

"Yahooo, that's what I'm talking about" yelled the dog boy Kiba

"I'll do my best" continued softly Hinata

"Yeah that's more like it" said Tenten

"I agree" said Shino

"I too will give my best, Cha" exclaimed Sakura

"I see, I'll join you" said Neji

"What are we waiting for?" said Sasuke as he sent a smirk to his blond best friend

The jounin captains looked at their students gladly they didn't like to see them depressed.

Kakashi looked at Naruto for a second before closing his eye with a smile; he knew Naruto had purposely said that to lift the spirits of the whole group, 'he'll make a great Hokage one day' he thought. He finished his food and stood up eyeing each of one before speaking again

"alright, will start training now, but before we do so I want you to stand up and make a line" he said as they complied "these" he continued as he got some pieces of paper out of the pouch in his back waist "are chakra sensitive papers, used to identify the chakra nature of shinobi, as you know each of us are born with a select affinity towards an element, fire, water, wind, lightning, and earth, we as jounin learn to use jutsu by applying our chakra nature in our techniques, If you prefer to be training this elemental affinities you can come to me and I'll gladly help you, but if you rather train your clans techniques I won't oppose either, however I'd like to test you all, so come forward and each of you take a piece, you only have to infuse it with a little quantity of chakra, the paper will react accordingly to your chakra nature" he said as he passed them the special papers

"Huh… Kiba, Shino, Sakura, Choji, Shikamaru, Lee, Tenten, Neji it seems all of you have earth nature affinity" observed the silver jounin

"How do you know kakashi sensei?" asked an intrigued Sakura

"Your papers, all turned to dirt and crumbled away" he explained "oh Hinata, Ino, it looks like you both have water nature affinity"

"Really? Cool" said ino, as hinata followed with a soft yes

"Naruto…. You have two affinities, it seems, wind and water the most rare in the land of fire" Said a perplexed Jounin "but don't worry Naruto i know many jutsu I can teach you for those affinities but it is harder than what it seems, you'll have to train very hard that goes for all of you"

"Hey why didn't you take Sasuke's affinity" Asked a curious Kiba

"I did it when we were training for the Chunin exams; he has fire and lightning chakra natures"

"Oh alright" continued a now satisfied Kiba

"Well, now that I know your Chakra nature affinities, let's start by assigning you to your captains and teachers from here on you'll follow them to the letter, these training will be like nothing you've seen before so be prepared, Naruto, Guy will be teaching you extreme taijutsu, he's the best taijutsu specialist I know, he'll be able to make you stronger and faster, I'll teach you ninjutsu myself, so don't worry about it alright" he said as he looked at naruto "Shikamaru, Chouji, you'll be training under Asuma, he'll be teaching you taijutsu and will help you out with your own techniques if needed, Kiba, Lee, Shino, and Neji you'll be sparring between yourselves with the supervision of either Asuma or Guy, Tenten, you are free to spar with the boys as well or practice by yourself, however either Kurenai or Guy will be teaching you taijutsu; Hinata, Sakura, and Ino, you'll be training Genjutsu and taijutsu under Kurenai, Hinata, you are welcome to train ninjutsu with me if you like but if not you'll spend that time training your clan's techniques like the rest, Sasuke I will train you myself." He said as he looked at everyone "in the mornings you'll meet your teachers for taijutsu practice, and genjutsu practice in the case of the girls, the sparring group will be active at this time, by six o'clock you'll go train the scrolls techniques, by nine o'clock you'll be resting for the next day you'll be waking up at six o'clock every morning for the next two months, is that clear? We'll start immediately" He finished as looked over at Sasuke who locked eyes with him understanding both of them left shortly after to avoid distracting the others

"Hinata, Ino come, I'll start showing you the first exercises I showed sakura earlier, Sakura you'll continue with the one you were doing before breakfast ok?"

"Yes sensei" she said as she stood a little farther from the other girls as to not distract them

A young blond in orange jumpsuit stood in front of a grown man with bowl cut hair as they spoke of their training regime

"Alright Naruto, let the power of youth explode, first take of that jumpsuit of yours, don't you have anything more comfortable to train?" asked a serious Guy

The blond looked confused for a second but then grinned at his teacher and said "oh yeah bushibrow sensei, I think I have something perfect for training" as he said that he went to his tent and changed clothes as quickly as he could he was now wearing an orange shirt with no sleeves and no collar, with black shorts and no shoes, he had taken his headband off as well "now let's get to business"

"That's the spirit Naruto" Said Guy as he gave the blond a thumbs up "Now I'm going to start teaching you taijutsu like you have never seen before, I took my time with lee because there was no rush, but now I'll make you a taijutsu specialist as well, I don't want you to use any kind of ninjutsu in this training understand?" continued a serious looking Guy

"Yes I understand" Said the blond "hey Bushibrow sensei, you think you could teach me open the chakra gates like you did lee?"

"Naruto that is a very dangerous training, are you sure you want to learn them?" asked a concerned guy

"Yes, for what I saw it is a very useful technique, I've just got to make sure not to use it too much right?" continued the cheerful blond

"Ok Naruto, I'll teach open the eight inner gates, but first I'll need to your body stronger, every day when you are not training with me or kakashi, you'll be exercising is that clear?, push-ups, sit-ups, abdominals, punches, kicks, you'll be doing these until you can't move a muscle anymore, every day you will go to bed feeling like that do you understand?"

The blond gulped but nodded

"Good, now come on, let's start training" said Guy as he entered his fighting stance

The blond too entered his own fighting stance and charged towards his master, as he got close to him he sent a right hook straight to the face, but was blocked by the man'[s left, then Guy punched the blond in the face with his right, as the blond stumbled backwards, the jounin sent another blow to the face with his left , and then started a repeated succession of blows directed towards the blond's face, the guy was fast he could only block half the guys punches, but then he decided to counter, he let himself fall on his back, as he sustained himself with his hands on the ground, then he sent a kick to the man's chin as he turned backwards completely recovering his stance once more, the kick didn't hit his target but he didn't waste time and charged at the man once more, he punched with his left, then his right a rapid succession of punches to the face and the chest, but all of them were blocked with ease, the man moved backwards slightly enough to rotate and send a roundhouse kick to the blond who received the whole impact, as he touched the ground the blond found himself feeling like hell

"Get up" Said Guy with a cold voice not known by many

The blond complied and stood once more, and like before he charged at the man, he made a small jump as he sent a kick to the face, blocked by the man's right, then he turned in the air and back kick to the neck, but the man ducked and evaded the blond, then the man took advantage of his opportunity and kicked the blond in the gut sending him flying, in the air the blond saw the man charging at him so when he touched the ground, he too went for his opponent, they clashed once more, Naruto sending a stream of kicks and punches that were either dodged or blocked by the jounin, he then too started his own set of punches, the blond was getting accustomed with the patterns of attack of the jounin, yet he still couldn't block the majority of them, and he knew that guy wasn't even trying, with that thought in mind, he tried moving faster and faster each time, the man then sent a kick to his shoulder and sent him flying once more but this time he followed the blond in the air, he intercepted him and gave a back kick that the blond was able to block miraculously, yet he still received much of the impact colliding with the ground as from the force of the man's kick

"Get up" He said once more in that cold strange tone that was so rare to see in him

Naruto rose once again with difficulty as he was already tired, his body hurt all over but he still stood because he knew that with this training he'd get stronger and that was what mattered the most right now

Choji and shikamaru found themselves doing push-ups as Asuma was telling them they needed to strengthen their bodies

Neji and Lee stood facing each other, as Tenten made a countdown, they looked at each other fiercely, they knew they had to attack with all they had they needed to end up exhausted, more than exhausted they needed fight until they could not anymore

Go Tenten said, as the boys charged at each other Neji immediately aimed towards lee's chakra points with his Byakugan activated, he was however blocked by lee as he got closer to spin around him and attack from another direction, Neji saw him and deduced his motives as he too, turned to block lee's fist, he sent a blow to lee's chest but was blocked once again by the green ninja , who replied by sending a kick towards the chin of the hyuga, he quickly leapt backwards doing a spin and landing safely in the ground before charging once more, he attacked left and right repeatedly but was either blocked or dodged by the green ninja, after evading a blow directed towards his chest from the hyuga's left , he move past him and spun around ready elbow him in the neck, he was however stopped as the hyuga too spun and said "Eight trigrams palm rotation" a wall of chakra soon started to emerge from all over the hyuga resembling a small dome which sent the green ninja flying with the force of the technique, he collided with the trunk of a tree and touched the ground as the wall of chakra disappeared, noticing his opportunity he vanished and then reappeared in front of the hyuga, kicking him in the chin and then crouching to make a leap, soon he vanished once more right before finding himself in the back of the hyuga " shadow of the dancing leaf" he said softly, at that moment Neji knew lee was going to use the primary lotus so he wasn't afraid, he was prepared for what was coming, or so he thought as they were still in the air, lee took him by the shoulders and struck him in the back with his knee, surprising the hyuga and leaving him helpless, sill gripping him by the shoulders, lee pulled him downwards as he rotated the position of Neji and him, leaving the hyuga facing the ground, "shadow strike of the crushing leaf" he chanted as he kicked with all his strength the hyuga's upper back sending him straight to the ground face first. He landed on his back exhausted and remained unconscious, while the hyuga was pulled out of the crater by a worried looking Tenten

Kiba and Shino were facing each other not too far from where Asuma was teaching his team

"Alright akamaru" said the dog boy as he looked at his partner in the ground who barked at him signaling to be ready "Let's do this" he said followed by another bark

"Very well" said shino as a swarm of insects was flowing out of his sleeves "This time I won't hold back, and you shouldn't either" he finished adjusting his shades

"Don't worry, I won't, AKAMARU!" He yelled as he crouched and the dog stood above his back "Beast mimicry: all fours jutsu" he finished as his body took a more bestial appearance and his dog transformed into a clone of himself, he started growling while concentrating chakra in his hands, legs and nose, soon he charged towards his teammate with his clone matching him in the lateral side

The aburame leapt backwards as to avoid the claw of his friend, soon the swarm of insects moved rapidly towards the dog boy, however he moved evading the swarm and charged once more at his friend, has he was approaching the aburame, he made a small jump ready to hit him with his right, but the aburame noticed that the clone or rather the dog positioned himself below his master ready to strike his opponent; Shino knowing full well kiba's strategy of the double strike stood his ground as a wave of insects rose from the ground or more specifically from the ends of the aburame's pants, the swarm soon covered his opponent's bodies and started sucking chakra out of them, Kiba retreated to plan his next move followed by akamaru close behind, it was time, after getting rid of shino's insects they charged once more but this time they made a small jump and rotated their bodies rapidly, their form soon started resembling that of drills as they closed on his opponent at an amazing speed "Fang over Fang" yelled the inuzuka as the two masses that where him and his dog hit the aburame, however as they made contact, Shino's body started to disperse in the form of insects 'an insect clone' thought kiba as he saw the body of Shino emerge from behind a tree, "Fang over Fang" repeated once again the inuzuka as him and his dog charged once more with his unique taijutsu, however when they collided with shino's body he turned once again into a sea of insects, they moved out of the way to avoid their chakra being sucked on

As Kiba focused on the insects that were coming his way he didn't notice the shadow behind him until he heard the bark of his dog, but by the time he noticed it was too late shino sent a back fist to the inuzuka's face sending him down to the ground, he quickly pushed himself up and escaped the swarm of insects that were coming his way he reunited with his dog and soon they charged again at their friend and opponent, they repeated the same process over and over only slightly changed by some other moves from the inuzuka like the dynamic marking of his dog, they charged, shino either evaded or dispersed into an insect clone, he too tried to deliver blows to his opponent, but kiba was now more focused than before it wasn't easy to trick him this time, not with his nose following his every move.

Sasuke and Kakashi stopped in their tracks as they looked at each other, sasuke had gone and changed his clothes to more comfortable ones, he now wore a white shirt with no sleeves and no collar with the Uchiha simple on the back, with blue shorts and no shoes, he had taken his headband off too, but he kept his warmers in both arms and legs

"Sasuke, as I said to everyone this training will be harder that everything I've taught before, if I see an inch of progress I'll push harder and harder, I won't go easy on you, understand?" asked a calm looking Kakashi

"Yeah, but before we start training I wanted to make a request" replied an impassive Sasuke

"A request? What is it?" asked a curious silver jounin

"Lightweights, the training equipment you told me about, the one lee was using when he was fighting gaara" responded Sasuke as indifferent as before

"Ah, so that's it, I thought you would ask for some, here" He said as he opened a scroll he carried in a pouch of his vest, and summoned two weights one for each leg

"I want another pair for the arms" continued Sasuke as he took the weights and put them in his legs underneath the warmers

"Alright but, before you start sparring with me you'll have to get used to those, otherwise the training will be useless, here" he said as he handed another pair of weights which Sasuke put around his forearms underneath his warmers

"These weights get heavier when you infuse chakra within them, that's why lee's were so heavy. Guy probably used a moderate amount of chakra for his training." Kakashi explained

"I want them heavier than Lee's" said sasuke as he rubbed his arms testing the feeling of the equipment

"Sasuke, if you want to get used to those weights, you'll have to train day and night without rest, If you want to do it then I'll give you the same intense training Naruto is having with guy" warned Kakashi

"Huh so He too is going to limits" Said Sasuke with a little amusement in his voice "Good, I wouldn't expect less from him"

Kakashi smiled under his mask, he was proud of both his students "we'll Sasuke let's begin" he said as he took the weights in the legs of the boy and infused a great amount of chakra, he noticed the immediate stiffness in the raven's body, then he took the ones in his arms and infused the same amount of chakra he used of the other pair

Sasuke stood impressed his arms hanging at his sides, they felt really heavy, he could barely move them

"Now sasuke assume stance, you're going to start with a series of punches" he ordered as he sat on a rock with his book in his hands

The raven paid no mind to his teacher and obeyed, he was now in his fighting stance, it took much of him to position his limbs that way rising his hands were tiring him, and the first punches he made were laughable, yet he continued to do so over and over until he would get used to them, he was going to get faster, stronger, he promised to himself, and when he puts his mind to something, no one will be able to change his mind.

"Sasuke, I have something to do, I'll be back soon, keep punching" said the silver as he left with his book in hand

He kept walking watching everyone training, the girls seemed to be doing well although Ino looked a little troubled, 'must be because kurenai is really pushing them he thought', Sakura was getting the hang of it by the look of things, and Hinata seemed strangely calm, he already knew she had talent for ninjutsu, but her clan only allowed her to train hyuga style taijutsu, perhaps she was talented too at genjutsu, he would have to wait and see, choji and shikamaru were tired, but Asuma kept doing like Kakashi had told him he had to be strict for his team's sake

He saw Lee and Neji as they fought, he noticed that neither of them were holding back, lee had removed his weights, and Neji had his byakugan activated, they moved fast for average genin, but he needed them to get to a level above chunin before he could start with the advanced training

He saw kiba and Shino, they were both exhausted yet kiba kept fleeing from Shino's insects; the Aburame, running and trying to intercept his friend to engage in close combat, was panting, yes he saw they were trying really hard, they were impressively, but there were two shinobi who could go much further than all of them combined, he had seen their talent and potential, he was most sure that both of them would surpass him in little time given the correct training; before he didn't care to rush their training, he wanted them to keep being young and have fun while they could, but now, now he needed them at his level, for he knew the strength he possessed wasn't enough

As he walked he saw Naruto sparring with guy, he was on the border of collapsing, yet he saw the look of determination in his face, as they fought he saw that every time the blond went to the ground he would got up, with the same determination intact, yes with the appropriate training he would become a shinobi like no other. He chose that moment to approach the duo, whom as they noted his presence they stopped with their combat

"Kakashi…sensei" said the blond between heavy breathing with his characteristic grin

"Guy, I'm going to show Naruto a method of training only he can do, so you will stop for five minutes, if you want you can check up on Lee, he too is giving his best" said Kakashi to the infamous green beast

"Fine Kakashi, but first I must tell you I'm impressed with your student, I see now why he was able to defeat Neji in the Chunin exams" replied the other jounin "Now Naruto, when you're done with Kakashi we'll continue our combat" he said with his sparkling teeth and a thumps up pose as he left to go see his favorite student

"Heheh… that Bushibrow sensei is really tough, now I know why lee idolizes him" said the blond as he watched the green jounin retreat

"Naruto, as I said before to guy, I'm going to show you a method of training that only you can do, this way you'll be able to do the training of years in only a few months" explained Kakashi

"What, the training of years in matter of months? How could I possibly do that sensei?" asked a perplexed blond

"As you know you have an unnatural amount of chakra, delivered from the nine-tailed fox inside you" Said the silver Jounin " you'll be using shadow clones to gather experience and knowledge from your training, and then you'll unite all that into your own body, meaning that you'll be able to complete the training of years in only a few months" finished Kakashi with the normal detachment in his voice

"Wait, wait you… you mean I can get experience from my clones?, does that mean that everything they learn I'll learn too?"

"yes, but it's more than that, knowledge, muscle development, muscle memory, chakra manipulation, all of that will be sent back to the original you, from your clones" continued Kakashi

"Awesome, so I just have to bring two hundred clones and make them train to make my training two hundred times faster, isn't that right?" asked a delighted blond

"In theory yes that would happen, but I won't let you make more than twenty clones for each training session" said Kakashi, who as looking at the confused blond spoke once more "not only you will gain the experiences of the clones but also, you'll accumulate all exhaustion, and stress from them, Naruto, with this method of training, you'll be able to learn from mornings to early evening at most and the rest of the time, you'll be collapsed and unconscious" continued the silver "that is only with twenty clones per session of training, do you understand?"

The blond remained quiet for a second as he thought 'he wouldn't have told me that if he didn't think I could do it, so it definitely is possible, but I'll spend the nights unconscious I won't be able to eat with the others, but if that training works as Kakashi sensei says, then I'd be a fool not to do it, and he wouldn't have left my scroll training aside that must mean he has something planned for that' "alright Kakashi sensei, I'll do it, tell me how should I employ the clones' time?"

"you're getting smarter everyday too I see, good" said a proud Kakashi " ten of your clones will go to train with your scroll all day, the techniques of the fourth are really complicated so you will need time to learn them, five of the other ten will go train ninjutsu with me, I'll teach them some wind and water jutsu, so you can be prepaired, I'll use a clone to teach them as I teach sasuke, the other five of your clones will go directly to physical exercises, every single one of them will spend each day doing only that, when you're done and dissipate your clones you'll collapse from exhaustion, I'll take you to your tent and wake you in the mornings, ok?" said continued the silver "oh by the way you will stay training with guy the entire day too, you'll only stop for food and rest nothing more, I'll make sure to keep a large amount of food for you to eat and regain your strength, now bring your shadow clones to start with the ultimate training" he said as he created a clone himself and sent him not too far away to wait for the clones he'd be teaching ninjutsu to.

"send the five clones there with my own, he'll take care of the rest, and the one's that'll take care of the scroll, don't worry I'll make sure sasuke'll be there too" he finished as he left

"shadow clone Jutsu" said the blond as copies of himself appeared beside him, he didn't have to speak, for all of them knew what they had to do

Kakashi returned to see sasuke as he kept punching he look noticeably more tired, but he still kept at it with a look that reminded him of Naruto, the same determination as the blond goof, though still a little darker.

"Sasuke stop, I need to tell you something" said the silver jounin 'he might not me a chakra tank, but he does have more chakra than all genin and most chunin I've seen' he thought

"What do you want Kakashi" said Sasuke as he stopped his training

"I'm going to tell you a way to gain the experience of years of training in just a few months." replied the silver leaving Sasuke wide-eyed and completely in awe

"if you do now a way why would you wait for telling me, why didn't you tell us all when we were together, the only way you'd conceal it would be if you think it was either too dangerous or that you think it wouldn't work, so which is it Kakashi" Said the raven now recovered from his earlier shock, as he thought of what kind of training would fit to that categories

"Sharp as always I see, yes I didn't tell you because it is highly dangerous, for anyone else to handle, the only one in this group I'm sure will be able to able to handle it is Naruto, with his immense chakra reserves, he will grow exponentially stronger with this method of training, even if he is a little slow" explained Kakashi " I already told him of this, right now he is multiplying the experience of his training by twenty, however every evening he will collapse from exhaustion, that is his limit"

The raven was shocked for a second he knew Naruto had an unreal amount of chakra, he then understood and even if he was a little jealous of his blond friend, he was still happy for him, he would be able to get much stronger and he would neither die nor let the others die, something deep within his heart seemed relieved by that thought, but then he started thinking again, if Kakashi already told Naruto, why is he here explaining it to him, he had an idea but wanted to make sure. 

"That's good, but why are you telling me this, I assume you haven't told the others so what is it that you want from me?" asked an impassive Sasuke

"Well I want you to train that way too of course" said Kakashi with a hint of amusement in his voice, surprising the young raven

"How…" started Sasuke, as he was interrupted by his teacher

"First let me explain how it works, you'll need to be able to create shadow clones, so I'll teach you the jutsu after this explanation, the shadow clones themselves will transport any knowledge or experience they gather onto your original body, meaning that the progress of your training will be multiplied, since you don't have nearly as much chakra as Naruto, you'll only create five clones per session of training, three clones will be doing physical exercises to adjust to the training weights you are using, another clone will train the techniques in your own scroll, you'll sent another clone to your training with Naruto, you'll be seeing ten of them so try to exercise patience, and your original will be training with me, we'll spar using taijutsu and ninjutsu, I also want you to keep your sharingan active at all times, at first it will drain you like you have no idea, but after a few weeks of practice you'll be able to keep it activated for longer periods of time." He finished

"Are you sure? All that will require monstrous amounts of chakra, even though Naruto makes four times that, it still sounds like it will drain my chakra completely" said a calculating raven

"I won't lie to you Sasuke, this kind of training would kill anyone else, even me, Naruto as I said has an enormous amount of chakra , therefore I have no doubt he will be able to do this training without much inconvenience" explained the silver "but you too have unnatural amounts of chakra even for your clan's standards, with time, and this kind of extreme training you'd probably be able to match Naruto, in terms of chakra, of course your styles of fighting and techniques will be much different, but for what I can see both of you are something else." Finished Kakashi as he imagined Naruto being the strongest ninja alive followed close behind by Sasuke, yes those two were something else, if they do this right they'll be able to defeat any enemy and restore the once glory and peace of The village Hidden in the Leafs. "You too will end up unconscious every day though, but don't worry about it, I'll carry you to your tent, each day and wake you in the mornings"

The raven looked at his teacher for a moment before nodding "Fine I'll do it, but don't worry I already know the shadow clone jutsu, believe it or not I've seen it an awful lot of times" he said as he made the hand sign of the jutsu "Shadow clone jutsu" he continued as five copies of himself surrounded him, already having the information the jounin had given them; soon each clone left to their specific training as the raven himself stood opposite to his master, the fight was about to begin


	5. Chapter 5

The Place We Can Call Home

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters; they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto **

**Chapter 5: Forest of Illusions **

It was night now, the dark sky covered all over the area where the shinobi of the leaf had been training, the moon illuminated the forms of the young and old warriors alike as they prepared to finish their day, gather their equipment, and head to have a meal before going to bed.

A young Sakura found herself battered and exhausted from all her training as she fell to the ground; she, Ino and Hinata had spent their entire day practicing several low-level genjutsu in order to get a grip of the principles so they later could perform more powerful techniques. So far they had done well, they already knew a couple of techniques that would be useful in battle, and didn't take much time to cast. She had to admit however that it was incredibly complicated to learn, she had no idea of how much concentration and skill was required to perform that kind of techniques, as she remembered her session of training she couldn't help but admire her new teacher; for her to be able to do a more advanced level of techniques only proved her capability as a jounin, and she was no pushover at that, the punches and kicks her teacher threw at her in her training were not soft, that was very much clear, she was sure to have bruises in the morning.

Getting back from her thoughts the rosette looked over her friends Hinata and Ino, they were as dirty and exhausted as she was, kurenai had given them a beating as they tried to fight her implementing genjutsu and taijutsu. Sakura couldn't help but be proud of herself and her friends, even though they were beaten like punching bags, they did not back down and continued to push forward, and she had been impressed; Ino, even though wasn't as skilled in chakra control was very clever and a proficient strategist, and she had a will that rivaled her own, the thought made her chuckle a little, she was after all her rival. She turned from her blond friend to the pale and shy hyuga who didn't seem to be better than either of them, she couldn't help a smile get to her face, she had seen what the hyuga could do in battle a few times, but she had never seen her go all out because of the presence of the male ninjas who tended to take the principal roles in the fights. She had been astonished to say the least when she saw her shy friend rush to her sensei when she was about to give a beating to Sakura, she had moved faster that she had ever seen her before, and the grace with which she moved was only enviable, even when she was fighting she looked like a dancing princess. Sakura started seeing her friend in a new light, and understood the drive of her friend to engage an opponent in battle, she then felt a rush of pride and a little jealousy for her friend, that little girl, who always cowered from everyone, was in fact a very powerful shinobi, and a very good person.

"haha you look like you're about to collapse, forehead" said Ino with a light chuckle for she only had so much energy left

"-sigh- haha shut up pig, you look just as bad you know" replied the pink haired ninja

A light chuckle grabbed their attention to their hyuga friend, she was obviously exhausted but couldn't help but giggle at her friend's antics

She was soon thrown to the ground by the blond "Hey Hinata, you didn't tell me you were this good" said the blond with a pout in her lips "and I thought I only had to beat forehead, now you joined the list of people whom I have to be stronger than"

The pale girl blushed as she averted her gaze "i-I'm sorry, I" she said before being cut off

"haha don't worry Hinata I was just kidding, there is no such list, but I do want to know more about you, I want us to be good friends, alright ?" said the blond with a hopeful expression

The hyuga looked at her surprised but then she gave a genuine smile of gratitude and her blond friend couldn't help but notice how beautiful her friend was, she now questioned why her friend wasn't more popular "o-of course" replied the white-eyed girl

"Great, forehead you are in this too you hear" continued the blond as she looked over at the rosette

"Ino-san if sh-e doesn't" started the hyuga before being interrupted

"Of course I will, hitata, I do want to be your friend too" she said with a bright smile trying to give a thumps up and failing miserably "man I'm so tired I didn't think I was so far behind in my training, this only proves how much more I have to work to catch up to them" she said the last part a little softer as she looked over the area where kakashi had gone with sasuke

Ino turned to her best friend knowing full well what she meant; both girls had been trying most of their lives to catch the attention of boys, especially the raven uchiha, and neglected their training of ninjutsu, and ended up being a burden to their teammates, they had been in life and death situations in the past, and were only able to watch from the sidelines as they're male friends took control of the battles to protect them from any harm. As she had her gaze on the rosette she had already reached a decision "we might be a little behind as of yet, but I'm gonna get stronger, I'll protect shikamaru and choji, I'll even protect you, forehead" she finished with a sly smile, yes it was time for her to grow up, she couldn't waste her time chasing a crush she knows it's not important, she has people who count on her and she will protect them even if it costs her her life

Sakura and Hinata looked at her surprised, Sakura for one never expected to grow out of Sasuke just like that, but now that she saw her, she realized how much her blond friend had matured, she too had to turn her attention to getting stronger, she had promised to her parents she wouldn't let anyone down

Hinata on the contrary was feeling a little different, she too wanted to protect her friends, but she was having doubts on if she was capable of such a feat, she had all her life been called weak, she had wondered if she had really could do it, she could only hope she was food enough.

As they got up from the ground they heard kakashi calling to them for their meal, they walked slowly because of their lack of energy but still made no more complaint.

When they reached the silver jounin they found him with Guy, Asuma and Kurenai, they were sitting in a circle near the campfire, there was a map between the three. Sakura thought perhaps they were talking about possible areas were the enemy might come to attack, Ino didn't seem to notice and kept thinking about her training, while Hinata was wondering if they'd had to relocate soon, but she knew they'd talk about it soon, so she just stayed quiet and kept walking the first to greet them was their mentor kurenai who with a warm smile signaled them to come closer.

"hey girls, you feeling better?" she asked with a little of amusement in her voice, she knew they hadn't felt more exhausted in a long time, this time she took her role as a teacher extremely seriously and she was pushing them over the edge.

"-sigh- I don't want to talk about it until tomorrow" said ino as she seated next to her Jounin leader Asuma while he chuckled

Kakashi took a look at the girls and smiled under his mask, Kurenai had told him that she had been impressed with their performances in the training, she noted sakura's magnificent control of chakra, and told him that he was right to make her learn genjutsu, she was very adept in it and would make a very useful member for the group in the future, though she also told him that he should teach her ninjutsu, for she had a tendency to take the battle head on, and seemed to prefer close combat; she said that Ino even though did not have the same level of chakra control as sakura, was very determined and had learnt a thing or two from shikamaru, and was very proficient in team combat, she quickly adapted to her teams manner of attack and prepared for assistance and support, making her a genjutsu user had been a wise decision of his part. Finally she had signaled Hinata's strengths, she already knew Hinata had potential for taijutsu and Ninjutsu, but she was clearly in awe at the progress she was demonstrating in her genjutsu training, even for the hyuga who had a very advanced chakra control, she showed her excellent levels of concentration and creativity, necessary for genjutsu users, she unlike sakura, worked at a distance even though she was skilled in close combat, she was very observant, and her bloodline limit gave her an advantage that would prove vital in future battles. In summery he had been told by Kurenai, that the genjutsu division of his little platoon, was improving rapidly, and to expect exceptional progress from them, he was glad, in the past the female members of the group were the weak links of the teams, for their lack of training, and he was sure had they put the right amount of time and concentration in their training, they would have been just as if not more capable than their male teammates at specific angles of the fights; they were now confirming his assumptions through Kurenai's report, he paid no mind the comments his fellow jounin captains used to speak of the genjutsu specialist, for he knew through observation the extent of her abilities. As he turned to the fire once more, he couldn't help the memories running through his mind of when he spent the nights with his original team, the late talks his sensei used to give, the jokes his friend Obito used to say, the smile his friend Rin used to share; at those times he disregarded those moments they spent together as he thought ninja did not need things like that to complete their missions, he only realized after the death of Obito how foolish he had been, for a long time the only thing he had to hold onto were his memories of them, when Rin died, the memories of her smile where the only thing that allowed him to get some sleep even if just a little, yes he had screwed up before, and he couldn't compensate for his mistakes, but he was glad he was able to prevent his students going up that road.

Not a minute after they were joined by Shikamaru and Choji, they looked even more exhausted and sweaty than the girls if that were possible.

"Hey guys, how was your training?" asked a curious and amused Ino as she noted the state they were in

"I should be asking you that, you look just as bad as us you know" replied Shikamaru with a disinterested look "but i'll tell you I didn't think Asuma would ever work us like that, I am barely standing and it took much to accomplish that"

"I really need something to eat" said choji as he rubbed his stomach and seated next to Ino

"Calm down choji we'll eat once the others arrive" said Asuma

The others sat too as they waited for their comrades to serve the meal

Kiba, Shino, Neji, Lee, and tenten arrived not long after; their clothes were torn and they all looked hurt, they had clearly gone all out against each other, though they knew their teachers were watching them from a distance in case something happened

They seated with the others as they talked about their training and waited for kakashi sensei to speak

"Alright, now that we are all here, there's something we need to discuss" said the silver as he looked over the young genin

"Wait sensei, Naruto and Sasuke aren't here yet" interrupted sakura as she turned her gaze from their group to the forest

"They won't be coming, they're already in their tents resting" continued kakashi giving her student an apologetic look

"what? Did something happen to them?" asked sakura with a worried expression

"Yeah, Naruto is the most energetic person I know, how did he go down like that?" asked kiba who was just as surprised as the others

"So you made them take another kind of training, it must be something else if it was able to take down Naruto, that's why we weren't told about it right" asked Shikamaru who had already recovered from the silver's revelation

"-sigh- you are too smart for your own good sometimes, yeah you're right, it's something very dangerous, and I was convinced only they could pull something like that, and even so it took much from them to do so, under normal circumstances they, like you should take time and rest, however I won't be giving any of you more time than ten hours of rest" explained the silver as he lifted up his map "now regarding the other thing we need to discuss, I've been talking with kurenai, Asuma and Guy, about the impression they got from this first day of training, I needed that information before we could actually start the real training, that's the reason we stayed in this place rather than going to a more suitable training field" continued the leader jounin

"WHAT?" Kiba, Sakura, Lee, and Ino exclaimed in unison

"So this was some kind of test to see if we were able to follow this training of yours?" asked an irritated Neji

"I don't understand sensei, I thought we were already training" said lee

"I needed to know whether you were able to increase your strength in a small amount of time or if we were going to need to take more time" said Kakashi with a serious tone

"I'm sure you know but before being destroyed, we didn't have the most stable of relationships with the other hidden villages, even if we were allies with the sand we are not sure what actions they may take if they know that there are a few survivors with kekkei genkai, we don't even know if any other village had something to do with the destruction of the leaf, so for the moment we cannot have any contact with the bigger villages, to tell you the truth we are going to have to go into hiding, I was hoping to make all of you stronger so we could meet with past allies and inform them of the situation, and be prepared in case they would try something."

"I see, then you must have already some places in mind were we would be able to hide, but what if we did indeed need more time?" asked Shikamaru, already running through different scenarios in his head, he also wanted to provide with any possible plan he might come by with "I assume you would take us far to a place where you know we won't be found easily, unlike the first option in which you'd choose to stay close by and reach our allies faster"

"Correct" said the silver as he gave a proud smile to the lazy strategist "and now that I know the results of your performance in the training I designed, I am glad to say that you will indeed be able to get stronger in little time that's why I'm taking you to a place called the training area 57th, it is a highly guarded place, and it was used to train jounin, though it hasn't been used in a while, I'll give the details when we arrive there, for now just eat and get some rest alright" he finished as he stood up and turned to leave the group "tomorrow is going to be harder than today, so go to sleep as soon as you're done with that"

As they watched the retreating back of kakashi sensei tenten spoke to the group "is the 57th training area like the forest of death or something?"

"Well believe it or not that is the place where Kakashi and I used to train after the third shinobi war" said guy with a sad tone in his voice remembering previous tragedies and the changes they brought "we had become jounin not long before, and since we were always going through challenges to prove our strength to the other that was a great place to train" he finished with a more cheerful tone "it is no place for chunnin to be actually, that place is very dangerous, and only qualified jounin were able to survive there"

"Only qualified Jounin? How are we going to survive in that place?" asked a frightened choji

Asuma chuckled before speaking "you shouldn't worry choji, we are going to be with you at all times, besides kurenai and I haven't been to that place, I know Kakashi wouldn't do something that could harm you in any day"

"Yeah tell that to Naruto and Sasuke" said kiba followed by a bark of Akamaru agreeing with his master

"come on guys, you all know why he is doing this, of course he wouldn't do something like that if he didn't think it'd work, as we are now we would probably end up dead should we encounter the people who destroyed the village" Sakura finished slowly and softly "we need all the training we can get" she said more determined "just because I can't do that special training doesn't mean I'm going to be left behind

"I'm with forehead in this, just wait the next time we fight you guys will be the ones watching from the sidelines while we protect you, isn't that right Hinata?" Ino said with a bright smile

Hinata blushed furiously as she felt all eyes turn to her; she looked up for a second before nodding

Tenten started laughing before she spoke "i never knew these girls had more guts than you kiba"

Kiba blushed slightly before answering "what are you talking about I'm not only going to get stronger but when I'm done with my training you girls will be all drooling over me, right akamaru?" the dog turned his gaze from his master nervously as he barked softly "what do you mean that akamaru, you should be supporting me!" exclaimed kiba as he stood up

Soon the laughter of his friends engulfed the place, they ate gladly making small talk, as they regained a little of the energy they spent in their training, right now they could only think how fortunate they were to have each other for they were now a family, as bizarre as it was it gave them peace of mind, enough to bring them from the sadness in their hearts.

When they finished, they did as instructed and left to their tents, tomorrow would be a hard day they needed as much energy as they could gather.

Sakura found herself going through her things to make sure she wasn't going to leave anything of importance, the thought made her feel strange for one part she felt warmth rush through her as she remembered her mother and the few things she had taken to remember her by, on the other part she felt guilt as she remembered how she had dismissed the company of her parents and how she hadn't known the value of human life, what she held as important in her things was nothing but a shadow of what her parents where, she knew that now, and so the image of her friends came rushing to her mind, the warmth she was feeling became stronger and she couldn't help a few tears slide down her cheek, for she know that the people she was with had an immeasurable value to her, she was fortunate to still have them with her.

She was brought back from her thoughts as she heard Ino enter her tent, in order to travel lightly they had decided to sleep in pairs and she had agreed with the blond beauty to share their tent. "ahh, I feel like sleeping for a year, I didn't imagine I'd feel this tired in my life, right foreh-" she stopped midsentence as she looked at the rosy ninja "Sakura are you alright" she finished approaching her friend with a concerned look on her face

They rosette smiled warmly and said "yeah, it's nothing, but thank you anyways" she finished as she embraced her friend

Ino was surprised at first but she quickly composed herself and hugged her back, she knew that having sakura still with her was a blessing she would never be able to thank enough for to whatever god existed

They both broke the embrace and lied down next to each other as they fell to the depths of their dreams

Shikamaru lied down in the floor of his tent as he thought of the next move they'd have to make after their training, he already knew Kakashi would have thought something out, however he couldn't help but thinking about any possible negative turns their actions may provoke

"Hey Shikamaru, are you awake?" asked Choji from his side bringing him out of his thoughts

"Yeah" he replied to his friend

"Do you think your dad is watching you from somewhere?" asked once more Choji with a hoping tone in his voice

"Why do you ask?" responded the lazy ninja as he turned to face his friend

"You know i... I never actually showed my father the good side of me, I was supposed to be the head of the clan but I was always avoiding fights, I hid whenever there was a conflict, I never had the strength to protect those around me, my father must have been disappointed to have a son like me" he finished as te turned his gaze from Shikamaru

The Nara genius kept his gaze on his friend for a few more seconds before speaking "Long ago, when we had just entered the academy and we were training to become ninja I remember all the kids running around in the playground pretending to be ninja and fighting with wooden swords, to tell you the truth I didn't understand that drive for violence these kids had, but then as I was walking around looking for a place to take a nap, I saw a boy, he was just sitting there as far as I could see, but then a movement caught my eye, that boy was holding something in his hands, he was doing something with it, he was smiling and talking, I didn't understand a word he said, as I was far enough for the boy not to notice me, but then he lifted his hands and I was able to see a bird, it was brown and it had a bandage in his left wing, I realized then that the boy had been fixing its wing, the boy then stood up and I was ready to leave, however as I was turning around I saw that the boy started climbing a tree, I knew then he was trying take the bird to its nest, and the boy kept climbing, but then his right foot slipped, and the boy started falling, I was about to go closer, but then the kid gripped the tree with his hands, I knew he was hurting because his hands were bleeding leaving prints in the tree, but the boy kept climbing the bird safely in his clothes, as he climbed I noticed the look of determination the boy had in his face, it was then that I understood, why it was that shinobi did what they did, it was then that I saw the need to protect those who cannot protect themselves, I actually was very impressed by that boy, that was the first time I saw you like that choji, and I'll have that memory with me until the day I die, when I told this story to your father, he cried, he looked at me and gave me the biggest smile I have ever seen in his face, and he told me "well that's my boy" as he said that the tears kept running down his cheeks, but his smile never wavered, it only seemed to get bigger and bigger if that was possible, there is no way he was disappointed in you choji, I bet he couldn't had asked for a better son" he finished as he turned to his friend once more

The surprise in Choji's face was evident, he was wide-eyed and a few tears were starting to flow from his eyes "That day" he said as he sniffed "I didn't think anyone was watching" the tears were now flowing freely down his cheeks "Dad actually said that ?" he finished as he closed his eyes

"Yeah" Shikamaru said with a smile "he was very proud of you"

"thank you Shikamaru" said choji with a big smile that resembled his father's "thank you" he finished as he wiped out his face and lied down in his spot in the tent next to his best friend "let's become stronger Shikamaru, so one day we'll be able to go back home" he said before falling asleep

"We will Choji, I promise" The Nara said before turning around and closing his eyes tomorrow would be the beginning of their real training

Hinata sat down in the right side of the tent as she looked forward with concern in her face

"What's wrong Hina-chan?" said tenten from her left side as she turned around to face the Shy Hyuga

"I-It's nothing, no-nothing's wrong Tenten-chan" she said with a small smile

The bun headed girl, knew she was lying, after the chunin exams both girls had become considerably closer, since Neji spent more time training with Hinata, the members of his team commonly frequented to see them together, and spent some time with her as Neji got ready for the missions, or the boys went for a little sparring match. "Are you worried about Naruto? Is that it Hina?" asked Tenten with a teasing smile

"WH-at , w-what are yo-u say-ing" said a blushing Hinata as she turned her gaze from her friend, when Tenten didn't say anything she continued "it's not that"

"Then what's wrong?" said Tenten as she seated across from her

"Well it's everything that's been happening around us lately " she said with a soft voice "first the village and now an enemy we don't even know is looking for us, this training, Naruto-kun can barely handle his, and the truth is I don't know if I'll be any help, I'm trying but what if I'm not good enough, what if something happens because of me, I was already the weak link of my family before, and I'm probably the weakest in this group, I'm scared Tenten-chan, I don't want to be a burden to anyone" she finished as she placed her hands in her face she was soon covered with the arms of her friend

"Come on Hina, you should know better than that, of course you're not a burden, I haven't known Kakashi sensei for long, but the other jounin seem to trust his judgement, and there is now way he would have let you do this if he didn't think you could, I am scared too you know, everything is happening so fast, and I haven't got a clue of what's going to happen, but I'm going to do everything I can to keep everyone safe, now let's get to sleep, we need to be ready for training tomorrow" she finished with a smile to her friend

"Yeah you're right, thanks tenten-chan I needed that" Hinata said with a soft smile

Both girls lied in the ground and closed their eyes as the sleep consumed them

Kiba sat with Akamaru in their tent as he wiped the dirt off his fur, he felt bad for pushing his friend so hard, they had been together since he could remember, and seeing him hurt made him feel really bad but he knew that Akamaru too wanted to fight and he couldn't stop him even if he wanted to

"Hey buddy, you fought great, the next time we'll even wipe out the floor, with Shino, I bet we could even take on Naruto for what he did to us in the exam, how does that sound" he said with a grin

"Woof" "Woof" Akamaru barked

"Hahaha, yeah I would want to see his face too, how about you shino?" he said as he turned to the form near him

"i don't necessarily need to see him jumping and yelling around, but I don't think you can beat him just yet, for the look of things he is going to get even much stronger" said Shino without moving an inch

"I know that, but we too are going to get much stronger, right Akamaru" Said Kiba almost yelling

"Woof" Akamaru agreed

"Yeah, come on Akamaru let's get some rest night Shino" he said before lying in the ground where he quickly fell asleep

"Goodnight" said Shino as he too fell to the depths of his sleep

Neji and Lee were sleeping soundly, they had pushed each other beyond their limits and even though not many noticed they were more exhausted than they had showed, as soon as they arrived to their tent they let themselves fall asleep

Kurenai rested in the arms of Asuma as they lied in the ground in their tent, even though they had been fighting with students far more weaker than them, they managed to get tired themselves, though not as much as they would have in a fight with someone their own league

"Those kids will go far don't you think" said Kurenai getting the attention of the man at her side

"Hahaha, something good happen in your training?" asked Asuma with amusement in his voice

"Those girls remind me a little of myself in the past" replied Kurenai with a warm smile

"Haha what are you talking about you were far more serious than they are" Asuma said but he soon regretted it as Kurenai kicked him in the leg "i-im sorry, haha I didn't want to make you mad" he finished with an apologetic smile

"You shouldn't tell that to a woman, geez" she said with a pout

"Haha forgive me Kurenai" Asuma said as he kissed her cheek "yeah those girls will blossom into beautiful flowers, and they have the greatest sensei they could have so it shouldn't be any problem for them to improve" he finished as he kissed her on the lips it was a small soft kiss but it was enough to convey their emotions to each other

As they parted kurenai now blushed buried her face in Asuma's chest "sometimes you talk too much" she mumbled as she snuggled closer to him

"Hahaha, yeah I bet I do, goodnight kurenai" he said as he felt his eyelids close

"Goodnight Asuma" she heard herself say before she too headed to the land of Morpheus

Kakashi sat above a branch of a tree as he scanned his surroundings for any movement; he had decided to take the watch first, there the silver jounin thought about the next phase of the kid's training, he had already talked about it with the jounin captains and he was convinced the training would show results soon

His ears caught a sound from the bottom of the tree, however he did not move as he already knew it was his rival and fellow jounin Might Guy

"Hey" said guy standing against the tree with his arms folded

"Hey" replied Kakashi as he took out an orange book from his pocket

A moment of silence passed before Guy spoke once again "I didn't think you'd be taking it this good"

Kakashi kept his gaze in his book but didn't respond for a second "what are you talking about" he said finally without moving an inch

"You know very well what I'm talking about, I know you Kakashi, since the death of Obito, and subsequently of Rin, you were never the same and became more cautious than ever; you even went as far as to delay a mission when it came to the safety of your team, to be sincere I thought you'd have rather prolong this training and guarantee their safety as much as possible, but the way you are doing things now" he said before being cut off

"was the best possible option; Guy right now, those kids can't defend themselves much less serve as an offensive unit, I didn't want to tell anyone this until I confirmed it but I fear soon a war will take place, and i don't think I can prevent it, I believe we'll have to go to war, and I don't want any of them to die knowing that I could have done something to prevent it, and I believe those kids will surprise me, after all they already have" Kakashi replied as he closed his book and looked up to the sky

To say Guy was surprised was an understatement he was wide-eyed and he didn't move, but later he recomposed himself "I see" he said finally "so a war huh, I didn't expect this" he continued as he parted from the tree "well I guess I'll wake you at one a.m. to take the watch" Guy finished as he started walking "later Kakashi"

"Yeah, later" replied the silver as he continued to study his surroundings

Morning soon came and Sakura awoke from her sleep as a mass made contact with her arm, she was being shaken she noticed; when her eyes opened the first thing she saw was her best friend Ino with an annoyed look on her face "geez forehead you really have a deep sleep don't you" she said before standing up and turning around "let's go the others are already leaving, and I want to get there as soon as possible"

The pink head ninja stood up, and cleaned herself as much as she could, before taking her things and getting out of her tent with Ino following behind, she yawned and then noticed the small group of teens next to three jounin captains, Kakashi wasn't there yet but she figured he wouldn't be late, somehow that thought depressed her a little, perhaps her jounin sensei would pull something like that

As she joined with the others and exchanged some greetings she noticed Naruto and Sasuke were with them, though a little farther from the others, they looked as though they hadn't rested at all, she headed in their direction and stopped at a close distance "Hey guys, how are you doing, are you alright? You look like hell" she finished with an amused smile

"Oh hey Sakura-chan, well I feel like hell, with all the sleep I got I don't feel that much better, how was your training?" he asked with a big grin

"I feel a my body sore, and I'm still tired but I can handle it, and it was actually fun, Kurenai sensei is a great teacher, how about you sasuke-kun are you feeling ok?" she turned to the raven with a nervous smile

"Yeah I'm fine" he replied with a disinterested look

"Hah trying to play the tough guy, right bastard, why don't you show me just how tough you are" said the blond as he held his fist to his friend

"Hmph I don't have energy to waste on you loser" he said smirking to the angry blond

"Fine, you'll see when I finish my training I'm going to kick your ass to the next moon you hear" he continued with another big grin

"Really now, I can't wait to wipe that smile out of your face" said the raven as he turned in the direction of the others

"Hey where are you going?" asked Naruto and Sakura looked at Sasuke too as he stopped in his tracks

The raven kid turned his head and looked at his teammates as he pointed in the direction of the group "Kakashi is here and it seems he is waiting for us" he finished as he turned his face forward and started walking once more

Naruto started laughing and was about to follow but turned to Sakura and gave her a bright smile "let's go Sakura-chan"

Sakura looked at her blond teammate and smiled, she was grateful to Naruto; he somehow knew how to make things 'normal' or at least that's what she thought, with her training and her friends she didn't have time to think about the loss of her parents, as much as she loved them, it hurt too much to think about them right now. She followed the loud ninja and joined the others as Kakashi finally put the book he was carrying in his pouch

"Thanks for joining us guys, but we don't have time for talks so I'll just say this, I already made breakfast as you can see" he turned his gaze to the left side of the group, there in the now extinct campfire were at least twenty complete fishes impaled in the ground clearly cooked there was also a pot where he had made a soup with pieces of squirrel "so I want you to eat and as soon as you are done we'll leave this place so get to it" he finished with his usual detached and calm voice

They didn't need more words as they silently walked to the area around the food, the jounin helped serving the food and everyone ate silently, though at some point they started making little conversations in small groups

When they finished everyone gathered and Kakashi nodded to them, then they were gone

Jumping from tree to tree, they traveled through the forest of the land of fire they were heading south to the hidden leaf and then turned to the east, the silver jounin led them through various turns and obstacles, they kept going for about three hours until they reached a place in the forest where The silver stopped, soon everyone did the same

"we're here" he said without turning and facing his students before the confused teens could utter a word Kakashi started doing hand signs faster than the average shinobi "Ninja art: Valhalla entrance" the jounin said as the earth started to ripped apart, when a rectangle was formed in the ground the group of teens noticed the stairs that led downwards "let's go" he continued and headed down the dark road

Everyone exchanged glances but soon everyone followed starting with Sasuke, and then Shikamaru, then Neji, Choji, Lee, Kiba, Naruto, Ino, Hinata, Shino, Sakura and everyone else

As she walked through the darkness, Hinata felt herself getting nervous, each step she took made her a little more aware of her situation in this training she'd be alone she'd have to fight by herself and there was no one in her corner to fight her fights, she was no longer the support, she was the lead of this play and all that pressure started to get to her, she clenched her hands tight to her chest but the a hand across from her grabbed hers "Don't worry everything will be fine, Sakura and I are with you alright" it was Ino's voice and even though she couldn't see her for she wasn't using her bloodline limit, she could almost see the blonds bright smile, she immediately felt herself getting calmer, yes she wasn't alone not this time.

After walking for a while a light caught the eyes of the Shy Hyuga as she walked with her hand in Ino's the light soon started to grow bigger and brighter until it engulfed the entire place, her eyes quickly adjusted to the brightness and she caught sight of the new environment where she would be training from now on. The area where she found herself felt heavier, warmer, as she looked upwards she noticed that the leafs of the trees covered almost all of the sky, though the light was somehow capable of going through the thick leafs; not far from where she was standing she could see a large lake, bushes and plants surrounded it and far in that direction she saw another wall of trees that looked darker than the previous part of the forest where she had been training yesterday. Far in the right direction from her she saw a rocky area where the unmistakable forms of training dummies could be detected, there were many, far more than she had seen in a training ground; that area as well was surrounded by trees, following that path only darkness could be seen. To her far left the trees changed their forms and the light seemed get thinner and lower the farther it was.

"This is the 57th training ground, I have already informed the captains of the area, and the place I chose for them to train you don't worry about anything, Asuma, Kurenai, and Guy will know what to do" Kakashi said breaking her thoughts "Now" he continued as he looked at the raven Uchiha whom nodded to him, son they were both vanished from sight, had she were not still tired from her training yesterday she would have been impressed, she turned to see the other jounin already leaving, Guy was walking side by side with Naruto and his team Neji, Lee and Tenten ; Asuma was Leaving with Shikamaru and Choji and her team Kiba and Shino. She turned around and saw the faces of her new good friends Sakura and Ino along with her sensei Kurenai

"Well Shall we?" asked the red-eyed beauty with a warm smile

"Let's go hinata-chan time for training "said sakura with a smile that brought confidence to the shy girl

"Y-Yes" said Hinata as confidently as she could with small smile

And then the four women left to the place where their training would take place

They reached threshold that connected the clearing with the forest where Kurenai stopped

"For this training you'll have go through this part of the forest, I must tell you that this is no common forest, right here the environmental factors and chemicals that linger in the area work the flow of chakra and control it randomly placing genjutsu in anyone who goes through here, the complexity of the illusions can vary from time to time, so there's no way what level of genjutsu you'll be caught in, you must try to break free and you'll get used to the feeling, adapt and use it to know how the illusions develop and how they transform, this training will teach you many things, and when you're able to stay here for longer periods of time, we'll begin the battle training in which you'll fight me as the forest casts genjutsu on you, that's how you'll train from now on, don't worry girls I'll be there at all times with you in case you are trapped in a high-level genjutsu." She explained clearly, she smiled and continued "are you ready"

The girls exchanged glances and then nodded

"Good, girls I present you the Forest of illusions"

**A/N: Hey there everyone, this is my first time actually speaking to you , I want you to know that it is because I'm kind of shy jaja, this is the second fanfiction I've tried to write, the first one didn't go past the first chapter, but I hope I can finish it someday as well.**

**I want to apologize for those who were reading and expected my daily update, truth is was taken to my aunt's place out of the city so I haven't been able to write much, but I'll be back home in about a week so bear with me a little more. **

**For those who think I made Naruto and Sasuke overpowered from the beginning, I want you to know that it's not exactly true, I do plan on making them really strong, but they won't be the only ones with progress, every one of the Konoha 11 will have a major role in this story, believe me when I tell you you have no idea what's to come, I do want to try to entertain everyone who reads the story, I also realize that not everyone likes the parings I chose, I hope you are not completely disappointed but I did want to get them together, also the romantic part of the story will go slowly and the development of their relationships will not be hurriedly written, I do want to give the females of this story a major roll as well, and also make them actually useful for a change, when I see those characters I see potential for great heroines, and that's what I want to make of them.**

**I want to believe this is not a crappy story with, a boring plot and undeveloped characters, that everyone gets bored reading about, i want this to be a story to be about friendship, and struggle, tragedy and love, that is able to move the hearts of my readers, that is what I want to make of this story. I welcome constructive criticism and I want to get your opinions as well even if it's just a "I didn't like it" I understand that I'm a novice when it comes to writing but I do want to get better.**

**And lastly I want to tell you that this will be a long, long story, fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride. Thank you very much **


	6. Chapter 6

The Place We Can Call Home

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto.**

"dialogue"

"_flashback"_

'_thoughts'_

**Chapter 6: Winds of change; Courage and will **

As they walked through the training ground Guy, Naruto, Lee, Neji, and Tenten kept silent preparing mentally for today's challenge

The young green beast turned to his left where his blond rival was walking beside his mentor, a sudden pang of jealousy rushed through his body and unconsciously he clenched his hands, Naruto had come a long way since the chunin exams and he was still running ahead of him even though he too was working his hardest, when he had met him in the exams he had underestimated him and put him aside like a nobody, but when he fought Kiba he had realized that Naruto had the same determination and will he had, both of them were not talented from birth but had to work very hard to come all the way here, yet Naruto was able to defeat his greatest rival Neji, whereas he was still struggling to catch up to him, he felt left behind really, the last time Naruto, Neji, and Sasuke went to the finals and he lost to Gaara of the sand, then later Sasuke fought him and showed him big time as he copied his style and injured the undefeatable foe; after his surgery and before this tragedy he continued to push himself and recovered the movement in his limbs almost to their previous state, but now once again it seemed that he was being left behind.

He turned to his right to were his team was, he knew his pale-eyed rival was exhausted but he was a impressed by his stoic facade the same he always wore, to his right was the always gorgeous Tenten, since they formed their team he was very comfortable with her, contrary to almost everyone in his life she didn't make fun of him though she had a knack to put him in his place when he was over-exited he had realized the attraction between Neji and Tenten therefore he didn't try to share his feelings it wasn't fair to his friends so he decided to keep quiet, he smiled as he looked at them Neji always pretending to ignore her but he knew his friend and rival when Tenten wasn't looking Neji took the chances to get a glimpse of her face, he frowned for a second as he thought of their village of what could had happen had the village not been destroyed, would Neji had decided to express himself, he doubted it but he would have liked to continue like before, deep within him he knew he was scared like the first mission he ever took, he just learned to suppress that fear he owed it to his team, and most of all to himself.

They soon arrived to the rocky area where several training dummies were located

"Neji, Lee, Tenten listen carefully see that platform over there?" Said guy as he signaled some sort of arena near their location which was a little farther to the right "you three will have an all-out battle against each other, the three of you, Tenten you'll have to get used to avoid close combat attacks, I know you already know this but it should give us an advantage should our enemy be specialized in that form of battle, Naruto and I will be over there" he continued as he signaled the threes farther down the road, it was dark the light didn't go that far.

"Alright sensei, then we will begin our training, good luck Naruto but don't think that you'll be stronger than me just because of your special training" said Neji as he smirked to the blond Ninja

"Heh, what are you talking about Neji, I'm already stronger than you, well take care guys, Bushy brow as soon as I'm done will my training we'll fight again alright? And this time I won't lose" replied the Uzumaki as he flashed a grin to team Guy

"You can count on the fight Naruto, but I'm sorry to say you will not win" finished Rock lee with a good guy pose "good luck"

"Take care Youthful students and make me proud" said guy sensei he departed with the blond Ninja

"Yes guy sensei" replied an euphoric Lee "are you ready guys?" He asked with a grin on his face

"Let's not waste time, Lee, Tenten" Neji said as he turned heals to the platform followed by his teammates "Now, let's begin" he continued as he positioned himself in a corner of the stage; Lee and Tenten soon followed his example.

The three shinobi shared a look before the female member Tenten sent four shuriken to each of them. they easily dodged and Lee charged towards Neji with over average speed he jabbed with his left and continued with a back kick when the former was dodged, it was blocked by the Hyuga's right and countered with a jab to the chest, he caught it with his right and with his left he took a kunai knife from his pouch and then threw it to Tenten she moved left to dodge and once again launched eight shuriken to the male combatants, they separated to dodge the attack and Neji caught two of the eight ninja stars in his right hand, moving rapidly he jumped as he leaned forward until he was in a horizontal position, he rolled to his left and sent one star to Tenten and continued with a flip forward to land on his feet he then sent the other star to the green beast as he rushed to him; Lee evaded the star and jumped backwards to avoid the jab of the Hyuga, he quickly dashed forward and took Neji's extended right arm with his own and sent a left hook to his chin, the Hyuga caught it with his left and sent a sweep kick with his left leg; Lee quickly let go of his rivals arm and flipped backwards as he sent kick to his chin which was dodged easily, he landed in his feet when he noticed a rain of weapons toward him, with his abnormal speed he evaded and dashed to the weapon empress as he took a kunai the brunette summoned a staff to engage, they parried their weapons trying to get a hit but were intercepted by the hyuga when he caught the girl's staff and leapt over it with a kick to her face, she dodged backwards and summoned two kunai knifes which she threw afterwards, they dodged and engaged once again as their punches where caught by the other. Tenten jumped high in the air as she brought three scrolls from her pouch "I've only tried it two times but it's perfect for the occasion" she said as she opened the scrolls, with one in her mouth and the others in her hands she prepared for her technique a name soon came to her mind _'Ninja Art: iron shower', _soon her scrolls opened and covered the entire platform as they rolled over it, with the sudden paper scroll all around them they two male shinobi stopped in their fight to look at the weapon master, in an instant hundreds of kunai, shuriken, swords and other weapons rushed to them. Neji quickly spun in his heel as he brought chakra to all his body, then a dome of chakra covered his body and deflected the weapons from his form; rock lee grabbed two kunai from his pouch and used all the speed he had to dodge and block the attacks, he evaded left and right up, and down, back and forth, even so many weapons cut through his clothes and some through his skin, no grave injury but still enough to hinder him latter in battle.

The shower ended with a Tenten breathing heavily still standing on her feet, Neji dropping his stance and approaching her slowly, and Lee taking out the few weapons embedded in his skin, he then approached them as well

"I think this was a good warm up don't you think so Lee?" said Neji when they were all together, Tenten was taking care of Lee's cuts, she was thinking that the technique could use improvement but it was good enough for now

"Yeah, let's get serious" replied Lee with a grin

"Alright guys I'll be over there training accuracy" Tenten intervened before heading to the area where the training dummies where

Lee looked the retreating form of Tenten before looking at his rival, he too was staring at the weapon master, if it were any other person they wouldn't notice but Lee knew Neji from the many missions they took together and he was able to perceive a subtle change in the Hyuga's gaze it became softer. He smiled his friends will be happy when they realize their own feelings towards each other "So Neji shall we?" he asked with a grin in his face

"Sure let's go" The pearl-eyed shinobi replied as he took his position in the platform, with the now banished weapons out of the arena he could finally fight seriously with all he got

Lee quickly took his weights off and took his stance as well in the stage

"Lee I want to take this sparring session a little different than the others" said Neji as he looked at his teammate

"How different?" asked Lee as he listened to his friend

"I want to test our skills before we are able to actually train; that way will be able to track our progress do you agree?" explained the Hyuga genius

"Agreed Neji, you and I will fight seriously and I won't hold back, this time I'll win, and prove that I can be an splendid ninja as well" exclaimed Lee as he took his battle stance once more

"Then come on and show me what you've got" said Neji as he took his own battle stance

In a flash the green beast charge towards his opponent, the Hyuga prodigy didn't lose time and activated his bloodline ability blocking several of Lee's hits as he dodge the rest of them, he leapt backwards and threw three shuriken to his friend; Lee vanished from sight and moved faster than unaided eyes could see appearing behind his teammate, he continued with his stream of punches kicks and elbows but the Hyuga saw every attack coming and blocked them as he countered with his gentle fist style he managed to block a few of Lee's chakra points, however it didn't affect him much as the green beast increased his speed further, their movements soon became a blur to any ordinary chunin and streams of chakra were dancing around the fighters.

Lee allowed himself to fall back as he thought of a possible way to defeat his opponent _'dammit, why can't I hit him, I've trained my body harder than anybody yet he's still able to keep me from inflicting any damage, you are truly remarkable Neji but I'm not going to give up'_

"_Once a failure always a failure, you cannot change what you are" _Lee's eyes went wide as he remembered the words Neji threw at Naruto when he defeated HInata in the chunin exams,

"_Why do you keep struggling, you will never be able to beat me" _he lowered his gaze as he recalled the previous fights he had with Neji.

"_Dork Lee, Dork Lee, Dork Lee"_ '_No!, I know I can be a great ninja too, if Naruto could so can I' _The green beast thought as he clenched his jaw

'_**Who are you trying to kid, Naruto is the son of the fourth Hokage, of course he can be a great ninja, but you, you are nothing'**_ a voice in his head told him

'_No that's not true, he is very strong because he worked hard, hard work surpasses talent!'_

'_**Please even you don't believe that stupidity do you? Look at him, your so called rival, but he's still far stronger than you, I bet he doesn't even try'**_

'_Shut up, shut up, I too can become strong; I will become strong and show everybody what I can do'_

"_You should give up already; you will never be a real ninja" _

"_I'm sorry but his career as a shinobi is over"_

"_a nobody who cannot do Ninjutsu or Genjutsu and your taijutsu is below average"_

The green suited Ninja was losing his will of fighting as memories of his past failures came to his head, he rushed towards the Hyuga and kept punching and hitting with the sole purpose of being the victor of this match, two palms of chakra connected with his shoulder and ribs, he fell to the ground but recovered quickly as held his sides while coughing blood. His vision became a little blurred but he once again launched a series of attacks to his opponent, however he was soon on the ground once more victim of a kick to his abdomen

"_Sometimes it seems like I'll never be good enough, like all this training is for nothing, I try and try again but it all seems so pointless"_

"_**How can you even be a good shinobi, you can't protect anyone you cannot even protect yourself"**_

'_Dammit, dammit' _he thought as he clenched his hands with enough force for them to start bleeding

"_**You'll just burden everybody, and guy sensei will be the one to pay the price"**_

Lee's eyes were closed tight as a few tears went down his cheeks, the pain in his body was getting bigger and he was losing consciousness

"Lee, are you that distracted you can't even fight seriously? I thought you wanted to beat me" asked Neji with a smirk _'Show me your true power, I want to see with my eyes free of darkness how a talentless loser becomes something great'_

The green suited ninja stared at his friend with wide eyes, he was right he swore he would beat him one day and prove to him and everyone that he too is part of this team, he will be strong enough to protect them

"_You know Lee you remind me of myself when I was younger, I too used to be a loser but I worked hard and I reached the likes even of Kakashi; you say you want to be a splendid ninja without the gifts that others have, well I believe that is a great goal and one worth following, don't let anything stand in your way, push through to the end, become everything you can be and make me proud"  
"Stop trying to tell me you cannot change what you are, I just don't know when to give up"_

"Right, I will not be left behind, I too am a ninja of the leaf!" exclaimed Lee while he concentrated his chakra in his limbs "Here I come Neji!" he continued as he charged at incredible speed towards the Hyuga; before he clashed with him however he stopped a ten feet away from his the prodigy and then started running around him.

Neji had already seen this move so he changed his stance to counter however he did not count on the next move Lee pulled

The green beast quickly pulled two kunai from his pouch and threw one to the Hyuga but it was easily evaded, however the Taijutsu specialist counted on that and as he made half a circle around the pale-eyed ninja he grabbed the same kunai he had thrown only to throw it once again this process kept repeating itself as Lee pulled more kunai and added them to his offensive. Neji was being overwhelmed by kunai coming from all directions, he was evading as fast as he could until he could no more and then used his chakra in the palm rotation. The dome of chakra sent the weapons flying away and the afterimages of the green suited ninja also disappeared. Suddenly as the chakra ceased to dance around the Gentle fist user five kunai knifes embedded in the ground started illuminating the field; Neji then noticed that they were covered by paper bombs he jumped high in the air just in time to avoid the explosion but was hit with tremendous force in the back by the Taijutsu master.

Lee landed on his feet as he observed the Hyuga genius in the ground

"aghh" Neji struggled to talk as he lay on the ground he couldn't move neither his hands nor his legs "congratulations Lee, you were right, someday you'll be a great ninja" he said between breaths

Lee stood petrified close to Neji, _'did I really? Did I really beat him? I…I' _"I…won" he continued as he fell to his knees tears of relieve abandoned his eyes as they touched the warm ground, he had finally beaten his rival, after so long his efforts brought results, he is no longer a sole loser, no he had finally proven himself as an equal to Neji, to Naruto and to the rest of them, his way of the Ninja proved true to him, Hard work can indeed surpass talent. He let himself smile widely as the tears continued to flow.

"Hey don't get cocky, you won, but that doesn't mean that it'll be always the same, I'll keep training and I'll become far stronger so Lee don't you dare slack of in your training because one day when all this is over, when we go back home, we will battle one more time to see who is the better fighter" said Neji as a small smile graced his lips, he was struggling to get to sit up when two soft but strong arms came behind them and helped him up

"Wow Neji looks like someone beat the crap out of you huh" said Tenten as she giggled softly, she then turned to Green beast with a warm smile on her face "congratulations Lee, I know how much this means to you" she paused for a moment as she observed carefully the bodies of her teammates "hey now come on, I have to clean your wounds and bandage them for them to heal, or else you won't be able to keep up with your training, take a break Guy sensei shouldn't take long" she continued as she took a first aid kit from her backpack and started working on their wounds.

Team guy kept shared friendly conversation as they enjoyed each other's company, they had lost much but they still had people they cared about and that was more important than anything right now, they were each other's strength.

Deep within the forest to the west clearing where they had first entered the area 57th a silver haired ninja jumped from tree branch to tree branch as he flanked his target hidden in the darkness, with his red eye scanning his surroundings he prepared for any trick the young raven might try.

Red eyes scanned all around following the chakra signature of the jounin opponent, the Uchiha soon came up with a plan as he jumped to a tree branch, several kunai and shuriken were taken from his pouch as he threw them in the direction where Kakashi was going to land, his weapons embedded themselves in the trunks of the trees as the raven once again drew more weapons from his pouch; the silver soon noticed the wire connected to the knifes and stopped in a tree branch closer to the trunk, more shuriken and kunai attached to wires flew in his direction going around him and binding him to a tree.

"Fire Style: dragon flame jutsu" exclaimed the Young genius while a stream of fire engulfed the wire he held in his hands traveling rapidly towards the now trapped Kakashi.

The attack soon connected and the trunk broke in half falling rapidly to the ground

Sasuke wasted no time as he scanned once more the forest for he knew the silver jounin had not received the impact

He was breathing heavily not only from lack of chakra but also the weights were still hindering him a lot, he moved as fast as he did when he had graduated from the academy, a noise soon brought his attention back to the ground were Kakashi's red eye was still glowing, Sasuke however did not launch an attack as he observed the jounin waving to him to come down, he did as instructed and approached his teacher

"We should take a break, trying to expand the time range of our sharingan is costing too much chakra, let's rest a little and we'll continue shortly" said the silver with his aloof voice while covering his left eye with his headband. He had taken his jounin vest off and put him aside with his things so he was only wearing standard black pants and long sleeve shirt, he however kept his mask on

"Fine" replied the genin as he too deactivated his sharingan, and went to sit against a tree

"By the way I should tell you that, we are not meeting the others for one month" continued the masked ninja as he sat close to his student

"Explain" said the Uchiha without looking at him

"Before we came to this place I had already told the jounin about this, they will focus on the other genin and you and I will focus on you and Naruto, though that will be my shadow clone, of course you and Naruto will still meet for your scroll training with your shadow clones but apart from it you will eat, train, and sleep right here, that way there won't be any distractions" commented the Jounin

"I see it's not a bad idea" continued the raven as he closed his eyes

"I'll lit a fire and we'll eat, afterwards we'll continue with the training" said Kakashi standing up and heading forth, his figure losing itself in the darkness of the forest

'_That Kakashi sure came up with a good training method, it's only been too days but I had never been so worked up before, I can feel it, it's just a little but I have gotten stronger, maybe if I keep this pace, I'll finally be able to take down Itachi!' _thought Uchiha clenching his fists tight, he soon stood up and moved away from the tree before continuing his work out, he fell to his hands and tip toes as he started doing pushups.

Nine figures stood in the darkness of an unknown place, immense chakra could be sensed from every single one, as the light of the sun vanished in the depths of the horizon on the outside, these individuals held a conversation of great importance.

"What's all this about I was in the middle of something" a grave voice said

"The hidden leaf village has been destroyed" one of them replied

"What about the vessel? Has it been killed too?" another one asked

"It is unknown, but I believe he's still alive"

"Very well then, from now on we will mobilize to the specific targets"

"What are we going to do if he died?"

"You and your partner will go to investigate, the rest of you, the names of your targets have already been given to you, dismissed"

Seven of the nine figures dissipated in the darkness

"This wasn't in our plans; we have to find out who was responsible"

"I find this very strange, that village still had dangerous shinobi, who could have done something like that, quickly and without leaving a trace for our intelligence, we have to exercise caution"

"Yes, we're going for information to him"

"I suppose we don't have another choice"

"Something big is about to go down, and we have to be prepared"

Soon the two figures vanished in the darkness just like the other ones


	7. Chapter 7

The Place We Can Call Home

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto.**

"dialogue"

"_flashback"_

'_thoughts'_

**Chapter 7: Unexpected development, Artistic destruction **

A teen rosette walked with her friends as they chatted about their training, it had been at least a month since they had parted ways, to focus on their areas she however had seen her sensei a few times when he decided he would teach her earth Ninjutsu, but she had not seen her teammates nor the rest of her friends in a while. She was content that her new "team" was doing surprisingly great against her jounin mentor and had even been praised by her for their skills. In the back of her mind Sakura was euphoric that she would be finally of use for her team, they were now the most precious things for her now, and she wanted them to acknowledge her as a shinobi.

They reached the clearing where they had entered when they arrived it looked exactly the same but there was not a soul in the place, The pink-haired beauty supposed her sensei had wanted them to be the first.

They put their things on the ground and made themselves comfortable as they all prepared some food for when the rest of them decided to show up.

A sound to their left got their attention where from out of the trees came Asuma, Shikamaru, Choji, KIba and Shino

It had been just a month but they had all change in some way, Ino noticed the difference of muscular mass in Shimakaru, he looked stronger and sharper if that was possible he wasn't wearing his chunin vest so she was able to see his stone hard chest not covered by his open shirt; Choji too seemed different, thinner he wasn't wearing his scarf anymore nor his headband, she dared say he looked a little intimidating.

"Hey Shikamaru, Choji, it's good to see you" Said the blond beauty as she ran and hugged her precious teammates

"you haven't changed a bit have you Ino" said Shikamaru with a small smile on his face, he had noticed however how his teammate had change over the course of this one month she wasn't wearing a skirt and a blouse anymore, she had changed to mid-shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, her delicate features only became more beautiful for the men to see but all in all she was still his loud-mouthed teammate

"what are you talking about Shikamaru" Ino said with a pout "I don't need to tell you that I'm growing up taller and more beautiful, right Choji?" she finished turning to her other friend with an expectant look

"Of course Ino, you've gotten really pretty" said Choji with a friendly smile

"See" she turned once more to Shikamaru who only chuckled in response

Hinata stood up and approached her teammates as she observed the changes they had gone through in the last month.

Kiba was shirtless which made her blush a little, he had changed his grey pants with grey shorts instead and bandages covered his legs, he was wearing a collar made of fangs and he had a few scars on his shoulders and chest, he was walking with a cheery grin on his face and Akamaru on the top of his head

She then turned to look at Shino he looked exactly the same, she suppressed a giggle caused by her friend's indisposition to change

"Hinata hey, how've you been?" asked Kiba as he rushed to his teammate's side and crushed her in a tight hug

Hinata blushed victim of his closeness "F-fine Kiba Ho-w've you bee-en?" asked the shy Hyuga when she was released from the embrace "is your training…going well?" she finished with a soft tone and warm smile

"You bet, I think I can already pummel Naruto to the ground" replied Kiba as he grinned to her friend.

She looked to the insect master waiting for his answer

"It's gone well" said Shino

"I'm glad to hear it" finished Hinata as they approached the others

They shared greetings and soon started to lose themselves in small conversation and narrations of their adventures, while they teased their masters for their proximity and their relationship.

Soon after Guy sensei arrived with his team and Naruto as they argued about out loud

"I'm telling you that move I pulled could definitely work against your leaf hurricane" said Naruto as he raised his arms in protest

"Naruto just because it caught Neji off guard doesn't mean it will work against me" replied Lee while moving his index back and forth

"Will you two shut up, I'm hungry and you're giving me a headache" Said Tenten with her hands on her head

Neji only sighed at his friend's behavior

They had all changed to lighter clothes for mobility and efficiency

Lee had stopped wearing weights in his legs as he was training to increase his stamina and adaptability to his full speed.

Tenten too had dropped all the weight of her weapons for her training in Taijutsu with her team.

"Naruto!" called a rosette as she stood up from her place and waved at him she had wanted to see him for a while.

"Sakura-chan" ran the blond towards his teammate as soon as he heard her voice, he without thinking imprisoned her in an embrace as he rubbed his cheek with hers "I missed you so much, I was dying from not seeing you" said the blond without care of the stares he was getting

"Naruto idiot!" the pink haired shinobi punched his head to the ground as pink shades covered her cheeks "why do you have to do such embarrassing things" she whispered to no one in particular "Now why don't you tell me instead how have you been doing ?" said the kunoichi as she turned around

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan is just that you've gotten so pretty I couldn't stop myself, well my training it's been going great that Sasuke Bastard will have no chance against me believe it" said the blond with a grin plastered in his face

Sakura was blushing intensely from his previous comment, fortunately she was facing the other direction and no one was able to notice

They joined the others and talked and joked around enjoying themselves and the company of everyone like they hadn't done since a month before.

The food had been prepared and passed to each Ninja, as they ate under the warm light, the feeling of solitude and sadness were replaced by a temporary joy and happiness by being in the company the people they could call a friend, the people they trusted and the people they cared about.

"Man it's already been half an hour, where are they?" asked an irritated blond falling prey to his desire to yell at his best friend.

"Well it really doesn't surprise me, you know how Kakashi sensei is" said Sakura as she sighed in disappointment

"I swear it's like the chunin exams all over again" Naruto continued with his arms folded pouting a little

"The chunin exams, huh?" said Kiba out loud as he gazed at the sky

An aura of nostalgia soon covered the small group as memories of their challenges to become chunin rushed through their minds

"Even though it hasn't been that long, it feels like years have passed since then" continued Kiba without looking at his friends

Naruto smiled a little as a particular memory came to his mind, he chuckled a little before speaking "I remember that just before the third rounds started I was called by Konohamaru, he wanted to help me get faster to the arena… he took me to many places where we met dead ends, I even got myself in a stampede" Naruto continued chuckling while leaning his head downwards, he clenched his had as a few teardrops descended from his face, they went unnoticed by almost everyone but a pink haired kunoichi sitting beside him

Ino started giggling as well "I remember when you threw Shikamaru to the arena, he looked so funny, and then the people started to throw things at him"

Sakura sent a sad smile as she to lowered her gaze to the ground "When everything was alright"

Naruto chuckled once again "I don't know what you are talking about, the pervy sage always took me to crazy adventures" he finished with wide eyes as he suddenly stood up with a spaced out look on his face

"Naruto what's wrong?" asked Sakura, all of them were suddenly on edge

"The pervy sage, he wasn't in the village, he is alive" he continued leaving the jounin wide eyed

"That's right I had forgotten about Master Jiraiya"

"Who are you talking about?" asked a curious Ino

"The Toad Sage as he was used to be called, is one of the legendary sannin of the hidden leaf village, he was teammate of Orochimaru and lady Tsunade"

"He was in a team with the Hokage? Then he must be strong right?" asked a surprised Kiba

"Yeah, he's very strong, I think he is stronger than Kakashi sensei" Said Naruto as he Clenched his fist, his master was still alive he had still the chance to save him "we've got to tell Kakashi sensei, so we can go look for him"

As if on cue two figures came out of the darkness of the forest attracting the attention of everyone

The young raven ninja walked with his hands in his pockets, he was wearing the same sleeve-less white shirt and blue shorts, though it had cuts in different places.

By his side the silver jounin walked casually while reading the orange book he had in his left hand he wasn't wearing his jounin vest and his shirt had cuts in different places.

"Bastard, Kakashi sensei, we forgot about the pervy sage, he is still alive we've got to go look for him" said Naruto as soon as he saw them coming

The Uchiha kept quiet as the Jounin spoke "calm down Naruto I didn't forget about him" he said without moving his gaze from his book

"What do you mean, so we are going to do nothing?" snarled the blond "He is alive, we have to find him"

"You're right, he Is alive but we aren't going to do anything about it" the Silver jounin said as he shoved his book back in his pouch, he spoke once more before the blond had a chance to protest "Master Jiraiya is a man who cannot be found when he doesn't want to, I really don't know where he is, and going to look for him everywhere is going to be worse in the long run, however you don't have to worry about it, he must have heard of the destruction of our village, and so he will come to us you just have to wait" he finished as sat and served himself some food

The blond was confused at first but finally understood and sat once again happily with his teammates "Hey bastard, I'm finally going to beat you, I've gotten really strong you know that?" he said with a grin to his friend

Sasuke ignored the blond and looked at his female teammate "Sakura how was your training " he said as he started eating waiting for her reply

The rosettes eyes lit up at his words before she had started training he was treating her like an outsider she thought he didn't care about her at all "it was great sasuke-kun, how was yours?"

"Fine" he replied closing his eyes and kept eating silently, the conversation between the group soon became animated once more as subjects like Naruto's snoring and Kiba's bathing methods came up

They had all finished when Kakashi stood up "Guys, Asuma, Kurenai, Guy and I will go scouting the area, we are going to make sure that there are no enemies Nearby the training grounds, I have something special for you when we get back, for now just relax, rest or do whatever you want but don't leave this place" he said as he turned around and took his book from his pouch, the other jounin soon followed.

"We've been flying around for three hours, give it up, there is no one here" a low guttural voice spoke

"Of course there is, didn't you see the condition of the village where we arrived, there were no corpses laying around, only graves, that means someone found them, and someone buried them, they shouldn't be far otherwise zetsu would've already caught them" another voice spoke

"It's been a month since we parted they might have gone someplace else where they could hide"

"Mmm… wait master Sasori I've got something"

"Is it the vessel?" asked the man named Sasori

"No, but he'll tell us where it is" the other man said as he grinned "let's see how do you like this" he put his left hand in a pouch under his clock grabbing something and immediately dropping it to the ground.

For the last forty minutes the genin had been doing as the silver had told them; Naruto and Sasuke kept talking and gazing at their scrolls as they prepared possible strategies for combat. The girls got together and talked about their training as they gave pointers to each other on what they might be able to improve. Neji and Kiba started sparring as lee watched waiting for his turn. Shikamaru and Shino were playing shogi as Choji watched them while eating fries.

They were all focused on their own activities when suddenly they heard a large explosion shaking the earth not that far away from the area 57th

"WHAT THE HELL!" yelled Naruto as he turned his gaze to where he heard the explosion.

"What was that" said Sakura as she too turned in the same direction

"This is bad" said Shikamaru as he stood up

"Neji can't you use your byakugan to tell us what's going on?" asked Kiba as he turned to the Hyuga prodigy

Neji activated his bloodline limit only to see a dome around the area 57th making him unable to see further "I can't my byakugan doesn't work here"

"Of course it doesn't there are seals around the hole training ground to prevent anyone from finding our position, why do you think kakashi brought us here" Sasuke said as he stood up as well

Soon everyone was on their feet as they heard multiple explosions coming from the same way

"What are we going to do, the others might be fighting, they might be in danger" said Hinata as she looked at her teammates

"Well I'm not going to stand here doing nothing, I'm going to see what's happening" said Naruto as he ran towards the exit when he suddenly couldn't move his body

"You are always so reckless aren't you Naruto" Said Shikamaru holding Naruto in his shadow possession jutsu, before the blond could protest the Nara continued speaking "We are going to do this as shinobi, that means as a unit, no going on your own understand?, that goes for you as well Sasuke, Neji. Since there are no jounin here I'll assume the leadership of this unit, so you will follow my orders is that clear?" asked Shikamaru to everyone

"Alright" said Naruto as he was released from the jutsu, the rest of them only nodded and Sasuke and Neji only gave a hmph as their response

"Good, our formation will be on the defensive, Neji and Hinata will be in the back informing us of any change in our surroundings, Kiba will guide us to the enemy; Lee and Choji you will protect Kiba, Sakura and Ino will go in the middle in case we need to rearrange our positions, they will cover us with their genjutsu, the rest of you will be our muscle, don't get separated unless I say so, that is all now let's go" said Shikamaru as they all dashed to the entrance of the area 57th

They reached the wall but they didn't see the entrance

"How do we open it Shikamaru" Said Naruto as he turned to the genius

"Sasuke" said the Nara as his gaze turned to the Uchiha

"On it" the raven said as he made hand signs faster than the average shinobi "Earth Style: Valhalla Entrance"

The wall suddenly started opening as a trail of stairs appeared before them

They wasted no time and dashed towards the exit

As they passed the threshold they followed Shikamaru's instructions as they jumped through the three branches

"Stop!" exclaimed Neji and soon everyone obeyed "there are two enemies, Kakashi sensei is fighting one with Kurenai sensei, and Guy and Asuma are fighting the other one" he said as another explosion was seen in the distance

"One is able to throw explosives from his hands and the other one is using a shell-like body, it seems that he only uses weapons to attack" said Sasuke as his red eyes focused in the fight

"Can you see them?" asked Shikamaru "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure those are the abilities they are using right now" he replied without looking at the Nara

"Sasuke-san is right small objects are flying from the hands of the one fighting Kurenai sensei, they have chakra inside of them though I don't know what material exactly is he using as the body of the bomb." Hinata said as she too had her gaze in the enemy

"So what are we going to do Shikamaru?" asked the impatient Naruto already wanting to go fight alongside the jounin

"From what I can see no jounin has been hindered in the battle, they have used only a little chakra, but those enemies are no normal ninjas; they have an incredible amount of chakra, and they seem only to be playing with them for now" Neji continued without looking at the others

"I say we go and take them on, if we fight all together we can beat them easily" said Kiba as he prepared himself to sprint

"Don't be stupid Kiba, if we go without a plan we'll only be a burden to them, and then we will get slaughtered" Said sasuke without looking at him

"Then what do you suggest we do, stay here talking like idiots while our teachers get beaten up?' snarled Kiba

"Shikamaru The other one is like Sasuke said before, he seems only to use weapons even if they are infused with chakra, I'm sure there is a trick to it, Guy and Asuma are avoiding him like a plague , and are attacking with long distance attacks" Continued Neji with his assessment of the battlefield

The Nara genius closed his eyes as he made his usual hand sign for when he is stuck in a complicated problem, he kept thinking in the probabilities of success, and the best strategy to take both enemies down.

He suddenly opened both his eyes and his friends stared at him with curiosity and impatience "I have a plan, but we'll have to divide our unit in two teams, if we don't and a jounin gets defeated then we are done, so this is what we'll do; Choji, Sakura, Naruto, Neji, and Tenten you'll all come with me to fight the guy that is against Guy and Asuma sensei; The rest of you will go aid Kakashi and Kurenai. Sasuke I put you in charge of the team, you are the most capable strategist among them aside from Shino, and you know the ability of the enemy I'm counting on you" said Shikamaru as he turned to the raven

"Wait why are you putting Sasuke in charge?" Snarled Kiba to the Nara genius

"Kiba Shikamaru is right, is better to let Sasuke come up with a plan when we get to the Enemy, remember that we are doing this to save our sensei and protect the only jounins left of the village hidden in the leafs" Said Shino to his teammate

"Exactly; everyone if we cannot defeat this enemy we will not be able to withstand the next hardships that are on our way, remember that we still have an unknown enemy capable of wiping out the entire village, so let's put our differences aside and start working like leaf shinobi do, alright?" finished Shikamaru as he looked at everyone there

"RIGHT!" they all exclaimed in Unison

"Sasuke, don't let me down" Said Shikamaru as he turned in the direction where Neji had signaled was their enemy

"Don't underestimate the Uchiha" Said Sasuke as he turned to his little platoon

Shikamaru nodded to him and then he spoke "Let's go" and then they parted ways.

"Fire Style: Burning Ash" Said Asuma as a giant cloud of ash escaped his mouth at rapid speeds towards the cloaked enemy; as soon as it reached him the cloud suddenly exploded in flames burning everything to a crisp

It was then that he noticed the figured had moved at unbelievable speed flanking him to attack from his right

The cloaked figure's tale swung rapidly towards him, intending to pierce him in the neck, however it was deflected by a powerful kick courtesy of Might Guy

The leaf jounin moved away from their enemy to assess the battle situation

"This guy is strong, his tail moves incredibly fast, and when we are at close range it releases senbon with deadly accuracy, the only way I see for us to fight is with long range attacks" Said Asuma as he observed the cloaked figure

"You are not bad, most people I have fought with didn't last this long, I commend your abilities, but you will not be able to defeat me" the Man with the tail said

"Tch, this is not good" said Asuma once more

Suddenly a wall of earth stood before the leaf jounin as they turned to where they felt chakra coming. Soon six genin landed beside them as they each took fighting stances

"Shikamaru what are you doing here, leave, this guy is very dangerous" Said Asuma as he turned his attention to the Nara Genius

"Don't worry Asuma sensei, I have a plan, you'll have to do as I say and we might finish this quickly" The only chunin said

"Where are the rest of you, where's Lee and Naruto?" asked a curious guy to the Nara

"They left to help Kakashi and Kurenai" said Neji with his byakugan turned to the enemy

Meanwhile Sasori looked at the earth wall curiously _'so there were more of them, and they are kids, the vessel must be among them, I'll have to hurry, this is getting boring' _

Before he made his move dozens of blond kids ran from the wall as they surrounded him with kunai in their hands _'this must be it Naruto Uzumaki'_ he thought as hi raised his tail and hundreds of senbon pierced through the blonds

They soon were gone with a poof, not a second after another round of clones came from behind the wall, this time the number was doubled. He looked at them amusingly but it was short-lived as they threw their weapons at him; he quickly encircled himself with his tail deflecting every single kunai, as it opened sending a new wave of senbon to the clones. Many of them disappeared with a poof, but there were many who remained unharmed.

Up in the air a shower of kunai came upon him ready to strike him down and tear of his shell the weapons connected but to the surprise of the leaf ninja the cloaked man Sasori stood as if nothing had happened.

"I see so that's what Sasuke was talking about" said the Nara genius as he thought a new move to add to his strategy

"What are you talking about Shikamaru?" asked Sakura maintaining control over the wall of earth

"The guy that we are facing is nothing but a disguise, I believe the real one is inside, Tenten's kunais weren't able to penetrate the shell which means we'll need something far stronger" continued the Operator for this mission

"I see, that's why our attacks didn't affect him, what do you suggest we do Shikamaru?" asked Asuma gaze focused on his student

The young chunin kept thinking of a plan until he came up with a good possibility to defeat him. "Got it" he said before telling them his plan.

A new wave of clones then attacked the enemy with impressive speed holding a kunai each clone they launched a close combat offensive against the mighty foe. His tail cut through every clone that approached him, suddenly he heard the air behind him compressing and he turned around in time to see a blond with an orb of chakra in his hand _'the real one?' _he thought frustratingly, he then decided to send anesthetic induced senbon; they connected with the blond and it disappeared in a poof. He however turned in time to dissipate the other clone holding the same similar orb coming from another direction '_he tried to deceive me into focusing my attention in the orb, nice kid, but I'm not that dumb' _suddenly a cloud of ash engulfed him completely _'when?' _with the sound of teeth getting clattered the smoke turned into a ferocious ball of fire that ultimately destroyed his cape and some parts of his body. Pieces of wood fell to the ground as the Ninja was revealed to all

Neji's eyes widened in disbelief "No way"

"What's wrong Neji? What is it?" Asked Shikamaru turning to the Hyuga prodigy

"That guy is a puppet" said the pale-eyed shinobi, everyone's eyes widened immediately.

Sasori chuckled loudly with his guttural voice, to the leaf shinobi it seemed as though the demon himself had been laughing at them "Congratulations, you revealed my special puppet Hiruko, not many have the chance to see his full body, you should feel honored to appreciate such work of art"

"Damn don't get distracted let's finish this" ordered Shikamaru to the rest of them

Hiruko's head suddenly went off as a full force kick courtesy of Might guy connected with it.

Sasori was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the jounin behind him; he hadn't known when he had moved from place to place. He tried to turn and slash him with his tail but to his surprise he was immobilized, it was then that he noticed the shadow connected to his own he had been tricked and paralyzed by the enemy's jutsu

He turned his gaze to a blond coming straight at him with a blue sphere in his hand, he tried to move but it was futile, the attack impacted perfectly in his body, shattering into hundreds of pieces and it was once again attacked by the same cloud of ash which turned into an inferno burning the rests of wood to crisp.

"We did it Shikamaru we won!" exclaimed Naruto pumping his fist into the air

They seemed to relax with the understanding that they had beaten the powerful foe.

"I was planning to kill you painlessly and quickly, but you are getting into my nerves" said a cold voice that left everyone paralyzed in fear. Suddenly the wall of earth shattered in pieces as an explosion blasted everything in its way.

The leaf shinobi were quick enough to escape their doom, but were now hiding trying to understand what had happened.

"This forest is really bothering me, I guess a change in the battlefield wouldn't be a bad idea" the voice spoke once again as a series of explosions started blasting everything to bits.

Sakura and Naruto Were covered by Sakura's earth dome that seemed to be about to crumble.

Neji was protecting Tenten and Shikamaru with his palm rotation

And Choji had put an earth barrier protecting Asuma and Guy by punching the ground with his partial expansion Jutsu.

They abandoned their techniques when the explosions ceased.

Wide eyes from the leaf shinobi witnessed the change in the landscape, as it had turned into a wasteland.

"This is much better; I like to see my victims when they die" Said a red haired boy with a cloak similar to what Hiruko had been wearing.

"Water Style: water dragon Jutsu" exclaimed Kakashi as a mass of water in the form of a dragon rushed to the enemy standing before him, the cloaked ninja easily evaded the dragon and then small birds started flying from his hand towards the silver.

He evaded and ran to avoid the explosion, the blast wasn't able to caught him but the enemy didn't seem frustrated or even mad that his attacks were failing, Kakashi was trying to figure him out but he had no clue as to what was it with that guy that wasn't even fighting seriously

He knew the cloak's patterns, he was one of the Akatsuki, he was here for Naruto, but he didn't seem worried or even impatient, he was just standing there waiting for Kakashi to make his move.

"What's the plan Kakashi, this guy Is good, he doesn't give me time to cast my most powerful genjutsu, and those explosions' range are enough to prevent us from fighting in close quarters with him" said Kurenai, as she stood beside the copy ninja

"We have no choice but to use deception, those explosives are faster than I care to admit, and his chakra reserves haven't dropped a single bit, that means the jutsu he is using is little to nothing compared to what he might still have in store for us, our best chance is to finish this as quickly as possible" the silver continued without moving his gaze from his opponent.

"Well, are you done strategizing? It won't work anyway, not against my art" said a grinning blond taking more of that mixture in his palms only for him to let them fly towards his enemies _'I hope they get here soon, if not then probably master Sasori was the lucky one to find him, meh it's still fun I got Kakashi of the sharingan' _

Both leaf jounin evaded the attack, and the silver soon charge towards the cloaked ninja

"Fire Style: Fire ball jutsu" exclaimed Kakashi while his breath became fire itself going at amazing speeds towards the Akatsuki blond

He once again dodged but was soon confronted by the copy ninja who had dashed towards him, expecting that move, they clashed with punches and kicks back and forth but ultimately the rogue ninja repelled the silver jounin.

As they took some distance Kakashi took the offensive once more, but was intercepted by the criminal's birds that exploded in his path obligating him to maneuver around to get close to his opponent

They once more exchanged fists and kicks before the cloaked shinobi separated to initiate once more his long distance attacks.

"Alright I believe I have already had enough fun with you, it's time to send you to hell with a bang" said the blond Akatsuki as his palms started secreting the same substance that he had used for his explosives before, only this time it was more liquid than solid.

From the puddle of white liquid arose a humanoid creature, with limbs that started moving closed to the leaf shinobi, then they kept rising until they were four, they had no faces but for the looks of things they were able to explode as well, and having more mass only meant that the explosions would be getting bigger.

As they approached slowly towards them, they were engulfed in a ball of fire that made them explode harmlessly in their positions.

Kakashi and Kurenai turned to the direction from where the ball came, surprised that up there standing in a tree branch were Sasuke and Lee gazes focused on the Akatsuki criminal

The blond Shinobi turned to the newcomers with a grim smile plastered on his face _'so the finally came' _

The Next battle would prove a challenge to them as the artists of destruction had brought chaos along and they had yet to see what they are capable of.

**A/N: once again I'd like to thank you all for reading my story I realize I've been delayed and I apologize for that, I wouldn't like to reveal any more information about the next chapters so I'm going to end this note here, I'd like to receive more reviews and opinions for you guys, I would actually want to know what do you think, from an objective point of view, does this story have a future? Thanks again, I'll post the next chapter soon.**


	8. Chapter 8

The Place We Can Call Home

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto.**

"dialogue"

"_flashback"_

'_thoughts'_

**Chapter 8: Counterattack, the monsters known as the Akatsuki !**

"Sasuke what are you doing here, you have to leave right now, this isn't a normal enemy you can't fight against him, leave him to me" Said Kakashi as he turned to the cloaked shinobi a few feet away from him

"I can't do that Kakashi, at this very moment the others are helping Asuma, and Guy against that other shinobi, we have to hurry and with our help, you'll finish this quicker" Said the raven without looking away from his target.

"Fine, but make sure you only make long distance attacks if he catches you with one of his bombs you are dead" the silver continued as he raised his headband revealing his red eye "I'll take him up close"

"So you finally decided to show that eye of yours, I was expecting that, It would be no fun to fight Kakashi of the sharingan without him using it, so come one, I'll blast you to bits" said the blond Akatsuki as he took a device from his left eye and put it in his pouch

Suddenly three Kunai came in his direction, he evaded as he looked at the kid who had previously burned his works of art, he recognized his eyes they were the sharingan, he was obviously the brother of Itachi, now he had a reason to kill him painfully.

He touched the ground with his feet as he felt a wire surrounding him, it was then that he noticed a shuriken had been thrown from his blind spot, he was now trapped unable to move his hands, he was about to take a kunai to cut the wire when more shuriken came around him from the opposite direction imprisoning him further to the point where his arms were pressed against his body and his kunai fell to the ground

"Now" exclaimed the young Uchiha while the green beast jumped at high speed towards the rogue ninja, his foot connected dangerously with his face stunning the blond temporarily.

When he recovered it was too late, Kakashi stood before him with a Kunai piercing his heart and his sharingan looking at him intensely

"You did it Kakashi" cheered Kurenai standing a few meters back from the silver jounin

"Hehe" the blond ninja chuckled; Kakashi's eyes went wide with the realization "bang"

The form that used to be the rogue ninja exploded taking everything in a twenty meter radius, including the Sharingan warrior, and leaving a shockwave that stunned the rest of the leaf Shinobi.

"Kakashi!" exclaimed Kurenai, when the explosion subsided neither the blond nor the silver where there anymore.

"Calm down Kurenai, look behind you" informed Sasuke to the female jounin, she complied and was surprised to find the silver jounin rising from underground "He did it when we were distracting the Akatsuki guy, a typical Kakashi move" he continued as he dropped to the ground where Lee joined him with the two jounin

They all kept their gazes scanning the trees around them for any signal of their opponent.

Sasuke's eyes went slightly wide with realization "Team b, Team c, regroup, the enemy knows your location and is after you!" he shouted to the trees.

Kurenai Looked at him surprised, while Kakashi narrowed his eyes in frustration towards the trees, not ten seconds after two large-size explosions sent the nearby trees flying as craters appeared on the earth where they happened.

Shino and Hinata crashed in the ground to their left not a second after looking injured from the explosions, simultaneously the forms of Kiba and Ino, went down to their right with similar injuries as a maniacal laugh was heard all over the place

"Splendid, magnificent, how beautiful, that is art" said the blond Ninja coming out of the trees opposite to them

The leaf shinobi rushed to the aid of their injured comrades while getting some distance from the rogue Akatsuki.

"You have done well, for a bunch of kids, I commend you for surviving my art this long, as a reward I shall tell you my name, it will be the last name you'll hear before you two turn into art" said the blond as he laughed once more "My name is Deidara master of the explosive style, and the last foe you'll ever face"

Sasuke clenched his fists in frustration, he had underestimated his enemy and his teammates had paid the price, what a leader he was being. He had thought he wouldn't be able to see through the Hyuga's and Yamanaka's genjutsu so easily.

Lee looked at the blond with anger in his eyes, and kurenai was searching for major injuries in the genin.

Shino, Kiba and Hinata stood up, as they too focused their gaze in their opponent, their wounds weren't hurting that much so they were still able to fight. But Ino had been struck in the leg and right arm, they were bleeding and she was breathing heavily

"Ino, Ino, are you alright" asked kiba as he kneeled in front of the girl in the jounin's arms

"Don't worry Kiba I'll take care of her" said Kurenai as she took some bandages from her pouch.

"Kurenai, Take her and leave this place, this is still a battlefield and you might get hurt if you stay" said the silver without looking at her.

Kurenai nodded to him and was about to leave when the blond spoke

"Who told you that you could just leave like that, I'm sorry but you won't escape, Master Sasori said to eliminate every single one of you and that's what I'll do" said the blond as he walked slowly towards them

Kiba turned to him as he pierced him with his gaze "You… You bastard" he roared as he rushed towards the Akatsuki with the full intention to kill him, his dog was running beside him, barking in disagreement for his actions

"Kiba stop" said Kakashi as he appeared before him impeding his advance

"I'm sorry Kakashi sensei, but I won' let this bastard hurt, Ino and Kurenai sensei; I'll kill him if I have too" spat the Inuzuka concentrating his chakra in his limbs

"If you keep going like that you'll get killed don't be stupid Inuzuka" Said Sasuke from behind them as he advanced slowly positioning himself in front of the injured shinobi

"They're right Kiba, my insects told me, this guy is a massive threat, we alone will accomplish nothing" walked Shino towards his teammate, when he was behind him he put a hand in his shoulder trying to convince him to work as a team

Kiba growled but turned his gaze to the ground "right, I'm sorry guys, let's take his guy down" he said as he looked at the criminal with new resolution

An explosion from the far left brought everyone's attention while evidence of the blast remained in the clouds. Smoke and fire could be seen from a distance and the leaf shinobi stood petrified in their places.

"Huh, it seems that Master Sasori has gotten bored, I suppose I should finish here too" said the blond with a disappointed look

Sasuke returned his focus to the criminal before them "tch, everyone formation b, we are going in the offensive" he said taking their attention to him

Kiba and Shino positioned themselves beside Sasuke as Hinata and Lee stood behind them/

"Wait Sasuke, we have to come up with a plan fist" said Kakashi turning to his student

Sasuke sent a knowing look quickly before turning once more to the Akatsuki shinobi

"Now" he shouted as their all concentrated their chakra

"Fire Style: fire ball jutsu" The raven continued as a stream of fire abandoned his mouth rapidly towards their opponent

"Ninja art: Insect swarm" said Shino as a torrent of insects appeared from his sleeves flanking the rogue ninja avoiding to be touched by the fire

"Man beast style: wild annihilation" roared Kiba, jumping high in the air with his friend and partner now transformed in a copy of himself; his body had taken a more bestial appearance and their forms soon transformed in tendrils of mass dancing around the blond at a distance and throwing hundreds of paper bomb-attached Kunais in his direction.

Hinata's eyes scanned their surroundings extending her vision far away looking for any other possible sources of chakra from their enemy in order to avoid other surprise attacks.

Lee took his battle stance waiting for Hinata to alert any incoming attack from the blond criminal.

Kakashi looked at them impressed that they had thought such an effective formation in so little time.

The attacks connected with their target blowing everything to pieces creating current of wind that pushed them slightly backwards

Kiba and Akamaru landed beside the rest of them as they cheered for their victory "Got him guys, he couldn't have survived that" he said as he turned to the rest of them with a big smile

"My insects don't detect any traces of chakra" Said Shino with his usual stoic voice

"Ab-bove Us" Said a frightened Hinata as her legs started shaking and she pressed her arms closer to her heart

Sasuke looked quickly at the Hyuga, before turning his gaze to the sky, his eyes widened as they observed the same thing Hinata had seen.

Kakashi and the rest of them followed their example only to be startled by what they saw.

Up high in the air hundreds and hundreds of meters above in the sky was a bird with a man on the top of his back, the same man the leaf shinobi had been fighting against, but that wasn't what terrified them; no, it was what the man had dropped and now was falling right down to them, an egg-like object of the size the Hokage tower was coming directly towards them, they didn't need a second to know that it was another explosive, but this one would have catastrophic effects

"I present you my greatest creation, my beloved composition C-3" shouted the blond followed by his maniacal laughter "Pop art is dead, my art is super flat" He finished when the bomb was soon to touch the ground

"Everyone behind me" yelled Kakashi as they all complied, he weaved hand signs as fast as he could, four clones appearing by his side each mimicking the original's actions

"Earth Style: Fissure fortress" the original said as the ground beneath them started falling taking them underground.

"Earth Style: Earth Dome" Said two clones as the ground around them started covering the hole above them creating more layers of earth

"Water Style: Water wall" Shouted the two remaining clones creating a stream of water to protect them from the high temperatures

The C-3 crashed in the ground blasting everything in a five kilometer radius to oblivion

Only leaving an immense crater where the forms of several shinobi could he seen from afar.

Deidara descended quickly with the help of his clay bird, and dismissed it when he was at a safe distance for landing.

He jumped down successfully observing the effects of his creation. "Such a fine piece, simply exquisite, a shame you only witnessed half of it before falling to your deaths" he said to his fallen opponents. "Well I've got to go see how Master Sasori is doing" he finished turning around ready to abandon the graveyard where the last of the leaf shinobi rested lifelessly.

The sound of rocks rolling behind him brought his attention as he turned and met a silver-haired man with a left red eye glaring at him. The upper right half of his uniform was destroyed so he ripped the rest of his sleeve and then threw it to the ground.

"I'm impressed I didn't think you'd survive that" the blond criminal told his opponent with a fair amount of amusement in his voice.

"I was careless, but believe me this won't happen again" said Kakashi brushing the rubble off his body

"You still intend to fight me? Have you learned nothing so far? You have no chance of winning against my art, I just want the nine-tails brat but Master Sasori has got it covered so I'll just kill you and then be on my way" the Akatsuki continued as he once again put his hands in the bags to his sides retrieving a fair amount of white mass he recognized as clay. "You should feel honored to see my next work, cause it will be your last, I'll teach you how to respect my art" he finished with his hands secreting liquid clay arranging itself in the form of a large puddle that surrounded him and a big part of the ground.

The silver jounin looked at him with narrowed eyes; he then turned slowly to his left observing the forms of his students and Kurenai, they were trying to recover from the impact of the bomb, his jutsu had absorbed most of the damage but, they were still hit by the blast.

Kiba sat breathing heavily holding his bleeding right arm with his left, he had covered his dog from the heavy objects that fell on him resulting in his arm injury.

Shino's Jacket was torn to shreds, he was trying to get to his feet bit his left leg wasn't was hurting like hell, so he just sat like Kiba, trying to regain his strength.

Ino was still unconscious in the arms ok Kurenai whose had bruises all over, the young Jounin was still healing the Yamanaka kunoichi as best as her capabilities were letting her.

Lee seemed to have been the least affected of them all, though he still had some bruises in his arms and his bandages had been burned completely, his sleeves had also been destroyed leaving only a few inches of them attached to his shoulders he had stood up glaring daggers at the powerful foe

Hinata was lying face down beside the rest of them with some rubble covering her body, her Jacket had been destroyed from the back and now the only thing visible was her shirt, her pale arms were covered in bruises and her left shoulder was bleeding slowly, it also seemed to be broken.

Sasuke was lying on his back grunting in pain as he tried to get to his feet, the whole front of his shirt had been ripped so he snatched the rest of it off his body, leaving his chest bare. He looked at the rest of them as a swelling anger started rushing through his body; he clenched his fists tightly turning his attention to the cloaked shinobi

"Sasuke, Lee, don't he's mine" said Kakashi as the tomoe of his sharingan started spinning rapidly

"Ha" exclaimed the Akatsuki, large forms rising from the puddle of clay taking form of bestial creatures charging towards the silver.

The copy ninja wasted no time as he too charged towards the clay monstrosities "Lightning blade" he yelled extending his right arm to his side charging lightning chakra into it, chirping sounds started appearing all around it as the sparks of his attack started covering a wider area. With an amazing speed he clashed with the clay titans, he jabbed the first one, beheading it instantly avoiding the spikes that grew out of the monsters body trying to pierce him; he dodged right hook from the monster coming from his right side and slashed through the middle of his body separating him in half. His sharingan caught two more of them about to stabbed him; he instantly jumped and with and with the ability only a jounin had pushed the two of them away with a kick to their heads, however they kept coming and his lightning blade kept slashing them but to no avail.

They kept exchanging punches and kicks as the silver continued to use his special jutsu to keep them at bay, he stole a quick glace to the blond shinobi and their eyes connected, but he soon resumed the battle he was in as he with a swiping movement cut three of them in half

"Sensei, look out" yelled Kiba trying to stand seeing the copy ninja about to get stabbed from behind.

The Sharingan warrior turned quickly and avoided the hit by running his lightning blade through the monsters arm, however a piece of clay he had previously cut attached itself to his leg, grabbing instantly his attention, he had no time to react for two more pieces of clay attached themselves to his left shoulder and arm, he was going to destroy them but his right arm was then covered by clay as well.

"BANG !" shouted Deidara looking excitedly at the scene before him

The monsters the silver was fighting started to glow was wall as the clay attached to it, not a second later they went off blasting everything in a radius of a hundred meters to ashes.

"KAKASHI !" yelled Sasuke at the top of his lungs watching with his sharingan as the chakra of his sensei faded into nothing

"Hahaha" laughed the criminal maniacally staring at the place where the leaf shinobi had been "My art has no weakness, even the sharingan was useless against it" he continued laughing hard as the rest of the genin looked terrorized at him

Suddenly an enormous great mass of clay arose from the puddle behind Deidara, soon transforming itself into another humanoid monster moving at incredibly speeds opposite to blond criminal.

"Bang" said the Akatsuki turning back slightly and looking from the corner of his eyes as the creature started glowing, not a second later blew off erasing everything in its path, a grunt of pain was head in that direction and a silver haired man went out of the smoke left by the explosion falling on his back, his left sandal and most of his pants on the left side were completely burned, and his leg was bleeding steadily, his sharingan looking straight at him.

"You are very persistent" Said the rogue ninja as the image of the terrified leaf ninja started dissipating "but you also underestimated me, too bad for you, it's over" he finished with a grim smile

Lee had his gaze in the copy ninja, the silver was obviously injured and would probably die if he didn't intervene, with a mental apology to his favorite sensei he chanted "First gate, gate of opening, Open !" his muscles then contracted and relaxed immediately his body also became a little bulkier.

Deidara turned his gaze to the green beast as he observed him with amusement in his eyes "I haven't forgotten about you "he said waiting to see what the kid would do

"Second gate, gate of rest, Open !" Lee said as a gust of wind started leaving his body moving the rocks in the ground beside him slowly

Sasuke looked at him surprised he hadn't seen his fight in the chunin exams but Kakashi had told him about it, this would be the first time for him to see the inner gates in action.

Kiba had helped Hinata sit up and were both now looking amazed at the green beast

Shino was looking straight at him with serious face as always

Ino was now conscious beside Kurenai as they both were looking in awe at the young genin Rock Lee

"Lee stop he's incredibly strong, you'll only get yourself killed" Kurenai said with concern in her voice

"I'm sorry sensei, but I must do this, Third gate, gate of life, Open !" continued Rock Lee, his skin turning a deep shade of red, as his veins started marking his forehead; he growled powering up "Fourth Gate, gate of pain, Open !" he chanted once more, the gust of wind started growing stronger as his chakra was, his body started getting bulkier than before.

Kakashi observed his rival's favorite student with astonishment in his eyes he didn't know the genin was able to open the gates that easily, even more so than the first time he saw him do it. His gaze then turned to Sasuke's who was now locking eyes with him, he understood the message, even if lee was going full force against Deidara there was no guarantee they will win, the young Uchiha was asking silently if he had something to take care of him once and for all; he gave a quick nod to him and weaved a hand sign charging his chakra.

"You are not going alone" Sasuke said positioning himself beside the green beast

"Sasuke, I believe it's best if I go alone" Rock lee told the Uchiha looking directly at him

"I was not asking you, I'm still the captain of this squad and you will follow my orders" the raven said to the beast with his sharingan looking straight at him "besides, that is not the way we do things in the leaf is it, have you forgotten about teamwork already?" he finished with his red eyes focused on the opponent

"Sasuke…" Lee said with admiration in his voice "Right" he concluded as he too was facing the enemy

"Hey, I'm still here you know, I'm going too" said Kiba standing to the other side of the Uchiha

"Fine" said the raven narrowing his eyes at the cloaked ninja

"Are you insane, that guy is going to kill you all" said Kurenai standing up and walking towards them

"Kurenai, as I said earlier I'm the captain of this squad, I do not need your permission to do things, so stand aside, we were the less injured from that explosion, I won't let that bastard kill them or me for that matter" said the young raven flashing his sharingan at her "and we are going to need their help too" he continued signaling the other kunoichi "your job now is to take care of their wounds enough for them to be able to fight" he finished turning his gaze towards Deidara

Kurenai bit her bottom lip and eyed them worriedly "Fine, but be careful" She finished as she returned to the side of the girls, they along with Shino started treating their wounds

"That is one very arrogant kid" said Kurenai in frustration

Ino giggled softly "Sasuke sure has a way with words"

Hinata eyed them with concern, and prayed for their safety in their battle. Shino didn't move his gaze from the opponent

"GO !" Sasuke said immediately sprinting towards the enemy

Lee had been the first to move at the orders of his captain, preparing to finish him once and for all; as he was closing in, dozens of monsters made of clay started rising from the same with puddle, charging straight at him .

An extraordinary battle began right there.

With an unnatural speed and might Lee faced five enemies repelling them, and trying to advance, however they were very resilient and not even his powerful punches and kicks were able to obliterate them, thus impeding him get closer to the one controlling them

Sasuke was using his sharingan fighting three of them struggling against the fast clay monsters, small cuts were surging all around his body but his sharingan was letting him keep up.

Kiba was facing two of them but he was getting beaten by the powerful monsters he was pierced in his left shoulder by one spike of the monster to his left, he let a scream of pain get out of his mouth as he was falling to the ground

"KIBA" yelled Hinata In desperation as she tried to stand up, her shoulder was still hurting her but she did not care

The blond ninja grinned "Bang" he said as the monster closest to Kiba started glowing not a second after the two monsters he had been fighting against blew off with a shockwave blinding everyone momentarily

"KIBA" yelled Kurenai, Ino, Shino, and Hinata in unison

When the smoke cleared out there was nothing left

A few tears started running down the cheeks of Hinata, as she put her hands in her chest "Ki-ba"

Kurenai and Ino followed her example; however Ino let a scream out her mouth "NOOOO!"

"Relax, he's just fine" said a voice behind them, they turned abruptly to look at the one who had spoken

They were very surprised to see the young Uchiha standing there like nothing had happened with an unconscious kiba hanging over his shoulder , he gently put him in the ground before walking slowly past them

"Sasuke-san… Thank you, thank you" said Hinata wiping the tears off her face

"But how did you…" said Kurenai amazed at the raven

"I said I wouldn't let him die didn't I" said the Uchiha nodding to the insect master who returned the nod before sprinting at full speed towards the clay monsters once more

Kakashi had been paying attention to the whole ordeal and couldn't help to be proud of his student, he continued then to concentrate his chakra.

"I don't know how you did that kid but it won't change a thing all of you will die sooner or later" said a now frustrated Akatsuki shinobi as more monsters started rising from the puddle of clay, that was now growing smaller and smaller.

Lee still was struggling against his share of creatures as two more had joined in the fight and he was now getting pushed back, even if his gates were open, the time of the technique was limited and soon he'd be left with no energy to keep fighting

Sasuke was now barely keeping up, now that two more of those creatures had joined in his fight, his sharingan was not able to keep up with the speed and the number of foes he was facing, and hits were starting to connect with his skin; he knew soon the blond criminal would make them blow off to finish him, but he wasn't able to repel them completely, he was getting more pounded that when he was on training, and he then realized that if he did not do something he would end up dead soon.

Kunai in hand he slashed through the monsters left hand, that was on his right, he ducked avoiding a jab to his head, he felt as a spike cut through his skin from his back, and he jumped to avoid a serious injury; the raven kept taking faster attacks trying his best to fend off his attackers when suddenly the movements became slower, significantly slower, he was able to see now every single attack from the creatures, he wasted no time and cut through them, taking a big leap in the air he weaved hand sings faster than the normal eye could see as a massive amount of chakra started filling his lungs "Fire Style: Phoenix Sanctuary Jutsu" he said as dozens and dozens of birds made of fire came crashing into the clay monsters; as they made contact huge explosions covered the place, some monsters had tried to evade the attack but the birds followed their movements as if they were able to see into the future.

Lee escaped the blast unharmed but his energy was slowly leaving his body, he was now breathing heavily but kept his gaze un the Rogue Akatsuki

"Damn you, how dare you disrespect my art, you are nothing but a worthless kid, who was only blessed with good genes" said an angry Deidara as he looked with hatred to the young Uchiha "Just like Him…" he finished softly through gritted teeth

"You hurt my master, you hurt my friends, you hurt everyone for your own selfish reasons without a care, and you speak of such nonsense to me" said Sasuke narrowing his eyes to Deidara "you are just like him, you don't deserve to live" he continued with a cold voice that sent shivers down the spines of the leaf shinobi, he clenched his eyes tight as a purple aura started surrounding his body

"it's over, you are done Deidara" yelled Kakashi taking the attention of everyone

The Akatsuki criminal turned to look at the silver when he saw the new eye he possessed; the tomoe had disappeared forming three straight triangles that curved when they reached the borders of the eye, the rogue shinobi had never seen such design before, nor did the other people present on the battlefield

The blond had no time to react when the copy ninja spoke "Tsukuyomi" he chanted before everything around Deidara turned into darkness

"Impossible, that's Itachi's technique, this can't be !" he shouted to no one in particular

A silver-haired ninja came out of the shadows with his sharingan glaring right at him

The rogue Akatsuki tried to move but it was pointless he had no control over his body

"I'm going to teach you not to mess with the leaf" said Kakashi with an angry voice as he clicked his fingers making Deidara's right leg explode to pieces

"AAGGHH, BASTARD !" Said Deidara screaming in pain

The silver clicked his fingers once more and Deidara's right arm went off with a bang

"AAGGHH, FUCK!" he yelled as he looked to the place where his arm used to be

Kakashi clicked them again and the blonds left arm blew to bits

"FUCK, FUCK, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, DAMN YOU !" he kept yelling in pain he knew very well this was a genjutsu, but the pain was as real as if it were happening on the outside world

"Good bye Deidara, you are no more" said Kakashi about to click his fingers

Just then however, the copy ninja fell to his knees yelling in pain as he covered his left eye with his hand, the darkness faded and Deidara regained control of his body

"AARGH" said Kakashi as a wave of pain rushed through his body, he felt himself getting extremely weak

"BASTARD , I'M GOING TO KILL YOU" said Deidara approaching slowly to the copy ninja, his whole body was aching and he couldn't move his right arm, the pain was killing him, but he still kept moving with the sole objective of sending Kakashi to hell

Sasuke turned his gaze to his master when he heard the name of his technique, the jounin had somehow learnt his brother's technique, and he partially stunned because of it

Lee saw the villain approach the silver and with all the speed he had left rushed to his enemy to stop him

Deidara noticed his presence before he made contact with him, he might have been injured and suffering from immense pain, but he was still one of the Akatsuki, and so was able to dodge Lee's attack and counter with a knee to his stomach; Lee spat blood as the attack connected successfully, he had now lost his energy and was succumbing to exhaustion.

Deidara took a Kunai from his pouch with his able hand and prepared to kill the young green beast for interrupting him, he then would go finish Kakashi for what he did. "Let this be a lesson, for defying the Akatsuki"

"LEE" yelled Kurenai standing up and running towards them, they were far and she didn't know if she would be able to reach them but she had to try

"Damn, Deidara it's me you want not him" said Kakashi trying to stand up but it was futile, he was barely conscious and his energy had been depleted

"LEE" Yelled Kiba, Shino, Hinata, and Ino as they observed the man raising his hand only to pulling it down at amazing speed intending to end the life of the kid in front of him

Rock lee watched with eyes filled with fear as the kunai came rapidly towards him, he had no energy and even if he had, the man was faster and stronger than him, he was sure now that he would perish right there he closed his eyes, waiting for the blade to pierce his heart

"DIE !" yelled the rogue shinobi with his knife centimeters away from the young beast fully intending to kill the kid.

Suddenly another mass appeared before him pushing the green beast away from the attack and getting pierced in his right shoulder.

Deidara looked amazed as his Kunai had pierced through the arm of Sasuke Uchiha, who was flaring his sharingan towards him, but it was too late when he noticed the spark of chakra covering the raven's left hand piercing through his body, the attack had gotten him in the longs and he knew that he would die here, he looked wide-eyed at the Uchiha black markings were surrounding his body, and an evil chakra could be sensed from him.

"Drop dead" said the red eyed kid sending shivers through the spine of his enemy and the genin beside him in the ground, who was looking at them surprised. The spark of chakra soon started getting bigger and then went out through the back of the Akatsuki.

Deidara was about to say something but the Uchiha pulled his arm out of his body and he fell to the ground lifelessly.

The markings in Sasuke's body started receding until there were no more, the red in his eyes started dissipating into a complete black as he too fell to the ground unconscious

The rest of them were still in shock for what they had just seen, nevertheless they approached their injured comrades with the intention of healing them, so they could head over to where the others where and make sure they were alright.

"how the hell did he…" stated Naruto terrified at his opponent's might but as he looked at his peers beside him the fire inside of him returned to his body "No matter well just have to deal with that as well" he said Making hand signs "Shadow clone jutsu"

Twenty copies of himself appeared beside him as they ran towards the rad haired boy

"Naruto wait" shouted Shikamaru as he too made some hand sings

Two figures came out of the kid's back while a torrent of black sand came rushing towards the blonds eliminating every single copy, the sand approached the last blond that was still attacking but when it was about to connect the blonds body went backwards avoiding the blow.

Naruto looked surprised at Shikamaru seeing the shadow attached to his feet, then his body started moving without his command as he came back to the side of his friends

"you can't go attacking like that without first knowing the abilities of your enemy, you almost got killed right there Naruto"

"Your friend saved you this time, but your luck has just run out " the red haired buy named Sasori stated, as torrents of black sand started forming around him.

They had seen part of his power and were in awe at they had witnessed, these man with the face of a teen, the strongest opponent they had ever faced, he was one of the Akatsuki, he had come for them.


End file.
